About
Carbon_Dating was a major participatory environmental artwork process developed over 2 stages in several locations throughout Queensland, Australia.
In Stage 1 (2021-3) our creative team assisted diverse groups of participants to grow mounds of native grass in their locality - and engage in caring activities with those 'carbon life-forms' - further assisted by a series of art-based experiments and processes. In a time of environmental stress, we called upon adventurous humans & vivacious grasses to ‘conspire’ together – to breathe life into radically new kinds of relationships - in order to build a community of care for our Country's declining native grasses and grasslands.
A series of participants working with First Nations consultants and their local communities each worked to develop those relationships over several months of growing, reflecting and exchange. This process culminated in a group Yarning Circle in 2023.
Stage 2 (2023-5) involved the subsequent commissioning and development of contemporary artworks in a broad range of media that each responded to participant’s experiences. These artworks were then curated into an exhibition which toured nationally through Australia, and to China, over two years.
Carbon_Dating therefore aimed to invent a new kind of arts-led ‘campaign’ capable of shifting public relationships with Australia 's often overlooked and under-appreciated native grasses - through building a community of care (around grasses and native grasslands).
