Bundanon has announced its first exhibition for 2025, 'Thinking Together: Exchanges with the Natural World', running from 1 March to 8 June.
The exhibition will feature major commissions by contemporary artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, Robert Andrew, Keg de Souza, and others, alongside paintings by Martu artists and video works by Sorawit Songsataya and Tina Stefanou.
Yawuru artist Robert Andrew will create a kinetic installation using natural materials to explore relationships between land, waters, sky, and living things.
His meditative piece will feature moving images capturing the contours of the Shoalhaven landscape and the Bangli river, building an evolving wall drawing over time.
Filipino-born artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan are known for their collaborative practice exploring identity, migration, and displacement.
Their installation for 'Thinking Together' will involve a large-scale sculpture reflecting the tree as a symbol of habitat and home.
The Aquilizans emphasise the importance of community involvement in their work.
"We do like to engage communities to get involved and become active participants, not just passive viewers, because the shared experience of making becomes part of the work's meaning," they said.
"By actually involving them in the process of creation, you demystify the idea that art is not solely an individual pursuit, but a collective one."
Their use of cardboard carries deep significance, particularly the 'Balikbayan Box,' a staple in Filipino culture used to send goods to loved ones abroad.
"This box serves as a tool to send to our loved ones a range of things... anything that still connects us to our families back home," they explained.
"Sadly, at the same time, it's a signal that we're not coming home or cannot come home.
"The significance of cardboard in our work is that each piece has a history of travel already, and this becomes part of the work's meaning."
Bundanon CEO Rachel Kent said the exhibition aligns with the organisation's ethos.
"Throughout its history, Bundanon has supported artists to connect with and draw inspiration from the natural world," she said.
"We are delighted to launch our 2025 program with an exhibition that speaks to the central ethos of Bundanon as a place for creative, cultural and environmental learning."
Keg de Souza's work will examine human-plant relationships, collaborating with ecologists to explore fungal networks at Bundanon.
Her multi-part installation will merge human design systems with natural world structures, including audio biofeedback and historical scientific display designs.
The Martu communities of central Western Australia will present collaborative paintings reflecting deep cultural connections to Country.
These works convey environmental knowledge, geographic information, and ancestral stories.
Paintings from artists such as Ngamaru Bidu, J. Biljabu (dec.), Bowja Patricia Butt, and others will be featured from the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Australia.
Other highlights include Sorawit Songsataya's 'Comfort Zone' (2021), which focuses on the kōtuku (Eastern great egret) and its migration patterns, and Tina Stefanou's 'Horse Power' (2019), a multimedia work exploring human-horse interactions through song and movement.
