CULTURE / NATURE

The Bunbury Biennale is a major West Australian contemporary art event that was initiated in 1993 with the aim to acquire new works from the exhibition to expand and diversify the City of Bunbury Art Collection.

Since its inception, this biennial exhibition has become an open platform for artists to present the latest trends in cutting-edge contemporary art, by pushing boundaries, exploring challenging concepts and stretching the limits of viewpoints.

The 2023 Bunbury Biennale is organized around the theme ‘Culture/Nature’ and presents a series of exhibitions highlighting a wide array of creative practitioners dedicated to critically engaging the environment.

The Biennale presents a cohesive survey of selected contemporary artists responding to the theme, Culture/Nature Nature and the environment have long been an inspiration for artists around the world. However, what was once a celebration of humans’ closeness to nature has evolved to expressing an urgency and concern for the dire reality of our planet’s ecosystem.

This exhibition is an eclectic display of narratives and investigations pointing to the vulnerable and delicate status of our current environment. Exploring personal, cultural, environmental, and political topics, the artists express themselves through a variety of traditional and contemporary mediums. There is strong articulation and deep engagement with contemporary ecological and political issues affecting the land and people, reminding us of our unsustainable relationship with the planet.

Participating artists prove once again the essentiality of art as a visual platform for conveying the urgency of matters such as awareness, responsibility, and sustainability. Art creates spaces for us to engage in, on an individual and collective level, and can even act as a catalyst, compelling us to act.

As the curator for the City of Bunbury Art Collection I have seen the Bunbury Biennale evolve into an event that represents a way of displaying and contextualizing art that makes it relevant to society and accessible to contemporary audiences. And it has been a real pleasure to work alongside Dr. Michael Bianco, our new BRAG director, whose progressive approach and visions have taken the Biennale into new and expanding directions.

I would like to thank and congratulate all the exhibiting artists for their support and outstanding contributions, and I also like to acknowledge our highly motived BRAG Team for their dedication and professionalism and making this event happen.

Krill are one of the lesser celebrated wonders of the ocean, despite being critical to the entire Antarctic food web. Swarms of krill can number between 10,000–30,000 per cubic metre. In terms of biomass, they are one of the most abundant species on the planet. They are bioluminescent, carbon capturing, nutrient cycling, climate heroes! Penguins, seabirds, seals, fish and whales all rely on krill as food. Without krill, these species would disappear.

Human driven environmental changes including industrial overfishing, melting sea ice, pollution and ocean acidification have led to a decline in Antarctic Krill populations of 80% since the 1970s. Protecting the ocean and maintaining large swarms of krill is essential for a healthy ocean and a healthy planet.

Krill (2023) was created by the artist through a combination of hand drawn elements and digital tools. Each tiny crustacean in this swarm of Antarctic Krill is presented at 1:1 scale.

This blue edition of ‘Krill’ is a bespoke work created specifically for the Bunbury Biennale 2023. The artwork is made using archival inks and photographic paper, mounted with clear gloss acrylic and backed with an aluminium subframe. Ian Daniell’s Life-Size Ocean Art celebrates marine life and calls for its protection. Bright blocks of colour and clearly defined forms are hallmarks of these artworks, which present each oceanic subject at 1:1 scale. His work conveys the vast scale of some creatures and the intricate small-scale wonder of others. The emblematic mode harnesses the language of warning signs and speaks to the threatened status of each species.

Ian Daniell is a British artist and ocean explorer based in Margaret River, Western Australia. His practice, Life-Size Ocean Art is a celebration of Australia’s iconic marine life and an ode to encounters in the wild. Having grown up by the north east coast of England, Ian studied at both Chelsea and Camberwell College of Arts in London between 2006 and 2010. Ian produced two solo exhibitions and featured in several group shows, including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, during a twelve year spell in the UK capital.

In 2018 the artist travelled to Western Australia. Subsequent encounters with wild orca, whale sharks and giant manta rays inspired him to relocate and begin producing his current series of work. Several exhibitions throughout Western Australia’s Margaret River Region followed in 2021 and 2022. His most recent solo exhibition OCEAN opened at Kamilė Gallery, Perth, WA, in February 2023.