Siteworks moves into microscopic focus this Saturday

Set in and around the iconic Bundanon Homestead, the program runs from noon until late into the evening on Saturday.

Visitors can camp overnight on the historic property, which is the former home and studio of Arthur Boyd. 

Each year the event brings together contemporary artists, scientists and environmentalists to respond to a theme – this year the event explores the theme Micro, focusing on the miniature and microscopic.

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A full day of festivities melds contemporary art works and performances with the sharing of knowledge and ideas. 

Artists will include Maria Fernanda Cardoso, French & Mottershead, Emily Hunt, Helen Pynor, Patrick Nolan with Dance North, one step at a time like this, Theatre Kantanka and Deborah Kelly. 

Details of artworks for 2018 Siteworks Micro:

Maria Fernanda Cardoso - Dancing with Spiders brings the world of the tiny peacock spider into focus.

Patrick Nolan with Dance North - Seven dancers perform a choreography of the invisible – a performance that reveals the thriving worlds that exist in the dirt beneath our feet.

French & Mottershead (UK) - Lie beneath the trees and fade into the forest floor as you’re slowly and gently subsumed by the earth over thousands of years through the visually evocative audio work Bushland.

Deborah Kelly - A pantheon of fleeting deity-creatures, The Gods of Tiny Things will haunt the natural amphitheatre.

Emily Hunt - A microcosmic fantasy world inspired by Hunt’s fascination with German Renaissance print-making. As these artists and satirists working in the 16th century did for their time, Hunt uses grotesque images of violence and hedonism to critique contemporary notions of morality.

Alan Schacher – In Sweet Separation Turkish sugar cubes are used to construct a vision of the bittersweet, tiny walls that divide artist from public.

Alex Torney – The Model Raveway is a miniature representation of the difficulties young people in regional areas face when trying to access culture.

Stories and Structures – An exhibition that explores the rich visual parallels between the representations seen in many Indigenous artworks and the microscopic structures hidden in the natural world, reveal unexpected and intriguing similarities.

Anna Madeleine - Sediments transforms inanimate rocks into layered augmented reality artworks along the Shoalhaven River.

One step at a time like this (Suzanne Kersten, Clair Korobacz, Julian Rickert) present noir, an evolving site-responsive work that places the audience at the centre of an unfolding experience traversing the night with evocative audio-scapes to place the audience in a dream-like, hyper-responsive, state.

Master of ceremonies, ABC broadcaster Robbie Buck, will keep the conversation flowing with a series of talks with leading academics, miniaturists and microbiologists discussing all things Micro.

Scientists and speakers include – 

Miles Merrill from Word Travels talks with Cambewarra Public School students about big ethical issues.

Michael Kuiper is a computational biomolecular modeller from the CSIRO, specialising in molecular simulation and visualization of proteins.

Simon Mattsson, a farmer from north Queensland, talks about how the awareness of soil microbiology and plant diversity can maintain soil health.

Zenobia Jacobs is an archaeologist from Wollongong University who dates geological and archaeological sites from grains of sand.

Anna-Maria Sviatko, creator of modern dolls’ house miniature scenes, will share the joys and challenges of mirroring full-size life in miniature.

Andrew Holmes from Sydney University is a microbial ecologist interested in human gut microbiota, with a wonderful poo collection in his freezer.

Curator Jenny Whiting and Aboriginal artist Graham Toomey talk about the parallels between microscopy images and Indigenous art.

Saturday’s event  is at the Bundanon Homestead. For detailed directions: bundanon.com.au/visit/directions

Cost: $12 full, $8 concession, children under 16 free, camping: $10 per person

Buses will run from Bomaderry train station – bookings essential. Camping, cafe and bar on site. Camper vans welcome.