Brolgas, 2014, Heather Kepski, hand coloured linocut.

Special Events for Bimblebox 153 Birds:

6pm, Wednesday 4 September:
A conversation about the Black-throated Finch with conservation biologist Dr April Reside, poet Brett Dionysius and artist Dr Emma Lindsay, hosted by curator Jill Sampson. (see more information below).

6 – 8pm, Friday 6 September:
Official opening, featuring musician and visual artist Colin Offord on the Wedgetail Eagle Feather Flute and the Harmonic Windpipe. (see more information below)

2pm, Saturday 7 September:
Curator’s talk. Jill Sampson will talk about why she started the Bimblebox Art Project, her development of Bimblebox 153 Birds and discuss why the Bimblebox Nature Refuge is in need of protection. (see more information below)

1.30pm, Saturday 14 September:
Bimblebox 153 Birds artists and writers will discuss their process and work, along with readings of poetry and prose. (see more information below)

Gallery opening times:
10am – 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday (closed Sunday & Monday)
Exhibition runs from 3 – 14 September, 2019

Venue:  Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Southbank Campus of Griffith University.  226 Grey Street, South Brisbane  (top end of Southbank, Brisbane)

The Coal Throated Finch, 2014, Rew Hanks, photo courtesy of the artist

6pm, Wednesday 4 September
A conversation about the Black-throated Finch with conservation biologist Dr April Reside, poet Brett Dionysius and artist Dr Emma Lindsay, hosted by curator Jill Sampson.

The tiny Black-throated Finch has become the flagship bird in the fight to protect Queensland’s Galilee Basin from coal mining. But what do we know about this bird species? Why is it endangered? Why can’t it just “fly away” when the machines roll into the Galilee Basin? And where would it fly to?
What role can poetry and the visual arts play in raising awareness for the protection of habitat and species? How does the arts interlink with the work of conservation biologists?
Come along to discuss these questions and more!

This talk is part of the public programs during the Bimblebox 153 Birds Exhibition and coincides with Griffith University’s Sustainability Week.

Bios:
Dr April Reside is a biologist with a focus on ecology and conservation science and has a particular fascination with flying vertebrates. A Postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the University of Queensland, Dr Reside sits on the Recovery team for the Black-throated Finch, Birdlife Australia’s Research and Conservation Committee, and Birdlife Australia’s Threatened Species Advisory Committee. https://aprilreside.wixsite.com

Brett Dionysius
B. R. Dionysius was founding Director of the Queensland Poetry Festival. His poetry has been widely published in literary journals, anthologies, newspapers and online. He is the author of one artist’s book, The Barflies’ Chorus (1995, Lyrebird Press), four poetry collections, Fatherlands (2000, Five Islands Press), Bacchanalia (2002, Interactive Press), Bowra (2013, Whitmore Press), Weranga (2013, Walleah Press), a verse novel, Universal Andalusia (2006, SOI 3) and two chapbooks, The Negativity Bin (2010, PressPress) and The Curious Noise of History (2011, Picaro Press). He won the 2009 Max Harris Poetry Award, was joint winner of the 2011 Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize and was short-listed in the 2017 Montreal International Poetry Prize. He lives in Brisbane, teaches English and in his spare time watches birds. brdionysius.com
Dionysius contributed his poem ‘The Black-throated Finch’ to Bimblebox 153 Birds.  You can hear this poem here.

Dr Emma Lindsay is an Australian artist based in Brisbane, Queensland. Lindsay graduated with a BFA First class Honours through the Queensland College of Art (Griffith University, 2009), was awarded her practice-led research PhD (Visual Arts) through RMIT University (Melbourne, 2016).
Lindsay’s paintings and interdisciplinary projects interweave visual and scientific data research from the fields of art, extinction, history, ecology and environmental science. Projects emerge from direct fieldwork in specialist global natural history archives, wildlife refuges, zoos, and remote managed National Park/World Heritage locations where threatened/endangered species and the impact of human activities and climate change can still be seen firsthand. https://emmalindsayartist.wordpress.com
Lindsay movingly depicted the Black-throated Finch in the national touring exhibition Bimblebox: art – science – nature.

Jill Sampson is a visual artist, Bimblebox Art Project coordinator and the curator of Bimblebox 153 Birds.

Musician and visual artist Colin Offord on the Wedge-tail Eagle Feather Flute, photo courtesy of the artist.

6 – 8pm, Friday 6 September:
Official opening, featuring musician and visual artist Colin Offord on the Wedgetail Eagle Feather Flute and the Harmonic Windpipe.

The opening event will feature musician and visual artist Colin Offord. We are incredibly lucky to have this opportunity to experience Colin’s music while he is briefly back in Australia.

Colin Offord: musician and visual artist has developed an international music with a distinctly Australasian character, a synthesis of music, visual art and performance that embraces western experimentalism, jazz and folk music, improvisation, East Asian, Aboriginal and Pacific cultural and philosophic influences.

You can find out more about Colin here.

Jill Sampson talking about Bimblebox 153 Birds and the Bimblebox Nature Refuge.

2pm, Saturday 7 September:
Curator’s talk. Jill Sampson will talk about why she started the Bimblebox Art Project, her development of Bimblebox 153 Birds and discuss why the Bimblebox Nature Refuge is in need of protection.

Sampson is a visual artist, who started The Bimblebox Art Project in 2012 as a creative response to coal mining expansion plans into the Galilee Basin. Sampson’s background encompasses the visual arts, rural farm life and touches on the coal industry.  For more about Jill Sampson, here.

Frazer Coast artist Jennifer Rogers showing her engraved wooden block from which she printed her Little Button Quail for Bimblebox 153 Birds.  Gympie Regional Gallery, 2016.

1.30pm, Saturday 14 September:
Bimblebox 153 Birds artists and writers will discuss their process and work, along with readings of poetry and prose.

Current Line up of speakers:

Beth Jackson –  writer
Jane Frank – writer
Siall Waterbright – writer
Belinda Curry – artist
Karen Kaese – artist
Kay Watanabe – artist
Paula Quintela – artist