TALKING THROUGH YOUR ARTS – BIMBLEBOX ART PROJECT

TALKING THROUGH YOUR ARTS – BIMBLEBOX ART PROJECT
Image: 'Black-throated Finch' by Emma Lindsay, 2012

A certain Queensland mining magnate ruffled more than a few feathers in 2011 when he reputedly said about an endangered species – “Fortunately, the black-throated finch has wings and can fly.”

With few exceptions, Australia’s 900 bird species are endemic to our island continent.

Queensland’s Bimblebox Nature Reserve is semi-arid woodland and a near 8,000-hectare wildlife sanctuary for 153 species of birds. A group of concerned citizens purchased the land in 2000, to ensure its range of ecosystems would be preserved. An agreement with the state Government was signed in 2003, to form part of the National Reserve System of Protected Areas.  Despite these measures it does not protect the land from mining.

It was in December last year Federal Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt approved Clive Palmer’s mega-mine Galilee Coal Project, aka China First. The impact of the proposed mine would inflict the largest devastation known to our Nature Reserves. Any challenge to this decision is met with further complications as the Abbott Government together with Labor introduced a new law in December, prior to Minister Hunt’s announcement, that makes it even more difficult to overturn.

An activist art collective was formed by a diverse group of artists in 2012. The Bimblebox Art Project is a creative initiative to give a public focus to the impending threat, both locally to the environment and to the carbon emissions that would be generated by the exporting of thermal coal. The group are undergoing a touring exhibition that will feature works on paper, painting, artist books, digital storytelling and sound.

Bimblebox 153 Birds Project is under development and seeking supportive participation from printmakers, artists, poets, writers, scientists, academics, composers, sound artists and musicians. Participants will be allocated with one of the 153 birds in threat. Their contributing artwork will then be produced in collaboration with other complementing artistry to form an exhibitive presentation that represents each of the 153 birds.

In another exhibition opening this week MILS Gallery features a collection of personal archives from an undisclosed friend of the gallery’s. In Clive Palmer, Found Archives (1963-2001): Heart of the Ocean, visitors are privy to Mr Palmer’s obsessive passion for the tragedy of the Titanic. The gallery’s note of disclaimer quite rightly declares that the exhibition is purely for the public interest and that it is not their intention to publicly ‘attack or ‘shame Mr Clive Frederick Palmer. (AS)

Bimblebox 153 Birds Projects, bimbleboxartproject.wordpress.com/bimblebox-birds-printmaking-project/

Clive Palmer Found Archives (1963-2001): Heart of the Ocean, Mar 7-23, Mils Gallery, 15 Randle Ln, Surry Hills, milsgallery.com

BY ANGELA STRETCH

 

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