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INTRODUCTION
Dr. Michael Bianco, Director, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery
Many are confounded by the larger existential threats posed by these massive environmental changes and are confused about how we will move forward as a species. In response, the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery’s 2023 Bunbury Biennale: Culture/Nature has been an umbrella project of exhibitions and events focused on exploring the dynamics of our society to the environment.
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For many, art galleries represent the pinnacle expression of a civilisation. As spaces that house our thoughts and stories captured in artefacts, they serve as sanctuaries of contemplation and as the temples of our civilization’s worldviews. But in this time of tremendous social and environmental upheaval, arguably art galleries are more than spaces of leisurely thought: they are a frontline for the cultural change needed to combat the climate crises.
Unfortunately, as many cultural theorists have noted, our ability as a society to shift towards more ecological-minded behaviours is likely limited by the structures of our institutions, and by the very nature of how we think. As the great poet, feminist, and civil rights activist Audre Lorde once wrote:
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”
The fact is, in order to survive as a species, we must fundamentally change the way we know ourselves as a society, and act accordingly. As such, artists, as visionaries and makers of new “cultural tools,” are the world-makers of countercultures and new eco-centric worldviews. Through them we may begin to see how the old master’s house might be dismantled, and how we might begin to build a new house collectively with the myriad of other species we are dependent upon. I am grateful to all the participants in this year’s Biennale and admire their bravery as they call on us to reconsider how we might begin to live well, and well within our means, in this endangered ecosystem.
