Bimblebox: art – science – nature
National Tour 16 May 2014 – 26 March, 2017
Bimblebox: art – science – nature, national tour venues:
- Redland Art Gallery, QLD: 18 May – 29 June 2014
- Dogwood Crossing @ Miles, QLD: 25 July – 23 September 2014
- Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, WA: 4 October – 23 November 2014
- Flinders University City Gallery, SA: 5 December – 8 February 2015
- South Coast Regional Arts Centre, Goolwa, SA: 17 February – 10 April 2015
- Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, QLD: 18 April – 7 June 2015
- Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum, QLD: 27 June – 15 August 2015
- Rockhampton Art Gallery, QLD: 29 August – 11 October 2015
- Artspace Mackay, QLD: 23 October – 6 December 2015
- New England Regional Art Museum, NSW: 5 February – 24 April 2016
- University Gallery Newcastle University: 4 May – 11 June 2016
- Manly Art Gallery and Museum, NSW: 1 July – 4 September 2016
- Logan Art Gallery, QLD: 14 October – 3 December 2016
- Somerset Regional Art Gallery – The Condensery, QLD: 6 February – 26 March 2017
Bimblebox: art – science – nature is a touring exhibition about the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, its environmental, social and scientific significance and an artist group’s creative response to their experience of this unique and threatened environment. The exhibition is rich, dynamic and diverse, including artworks in installation, works on paper, painting, artist books, photography, digital media and sound. The exhibition also incorporates aspects of scientific and environmental research and social history of the site, together with catalogue and education kit in digital and print media.
Bimblebox Nature Refuge is located in semi-arid, desert uplands environment approximately 50km north-west of Alpha in Central Queensland, comprising 8000 hectares of native bushland, the majority of which has never been cleared. While legally recognised as a Nature Refuge and part of the National Reserve System of Protected Areas, Bimblebox is under threat from coal mining. This exhibition explores the challenging subjects of coal mining, global warming, diminishing biodiversity, the changing socio-cultural dispositions of regional communities and the role of creativity in that process. Aiming to document and creatively interpret this unique place and time, Bimblebox: art – science – nature may help to save this nature refuge from destruction or it will provide lasting testimony.

At the Condensery, Somerset Regional Art Gallery; Foreground: Bimblebox Art Project – What’s yours is my coal mine, 2013 The Hunter Brothers, aka Gerald Soworka . Background: Carbon Dating, 2013, Alison Clouston and Boyd; photo Jude Roberts
Opening night at Manly Art Gallery 2016, photo Tangible Media

Bimblebox: art – science – nature installed at Redland Art Gallery, photo Tangible Media.

Bimblebox: art – science – nature at Manly Art Gallery, photo Tangible Media.

Coalface performance, photo Tangible Media.
Launched at Redland Art Gallery on 16 May, 2014
Toured 2014 – 2017
Digital Catalogue is a Free App to download to your iPad.Bimblebox: art – science – nature website here.
Curator: Beth Jackson
Initiator and co-ordinator: Jill Sampson
Artists
- Alison Clouston and Boyd
- Howard Butler
- Kaylene Butler
- Dr Pamela CroftWarcon
- Donna Davis
- Emma Lindsay
- Fiona MacDonald
- Samara McIlroy
- Liz Mahood
- Glenda Orr
- Michael Pospischil
- Jude Roberts
- Luke Roberts
- Jill Sampson
- Gerald Soworka
- Shayna Wells

All Souls Day (Tree), 2009, Luke Roberts, photo courtesy of the artist.

Alpha 1, 2013, Fiona MacDonald, photo courtesy of the artist.

Reconfigured Landscape no. 1, 2, 3. Shayna Wells, photo Carl Warner. Currently touring with Bimblebox: art – science – nature.

What’s yours is mine (detail), 2013, Gerald Soworka, photo courtesy of the artist.

Multifocal 2, 2013, Glenda Orr, photo courtesy of the artist.

15 Endangered Black-throated Finches lineup, 2014, Emma Lindsay, photo Elouise.

15 Endangered Black-throated Finches momento mori for Bimblebox, 2013 , Emma Lindsay, photograph copyright of Emma Lindsay (photograph copyright of the artist)

Installed at Somerset Regional Gallery, in the foreground: Jaw-war tet-tweer, 2013, Samara McIlroy, then REsearch, 2013, Donna Davis, photo Jude Roberts.

Shroud for an ancient basin, 2013, Jude Roberts, photo Carl Warner.

REsource (detail), 2013, Donna Davis, photo Carl Warner.

Honouring Jagalingou Country, 2014, Pamela CroftWarcon, Howard Butler, Kaylene Butler, photo Carl Warner.

Coalface, 2014, Alison Clouston and Boyd, photo Stephen Oxenbury

Mending the Future, 2013, Jill Sampson, photo by Carl Warner
Bimblebox Sky Map 2, 2013, artist Glenda Orr, photo by Carl Warner

The Mechanics of Survival, The Camp Workshop & The Great Divide, 2013, paintings by Michael Pospischil, in the foreground Cabinet of Curiosities composed by Jill Sampson, photo Carl Warner.

Vanishing Food Bowls (detail), 2014, Jill Sampson, photo Carl Warner.
Depiction of Environment through Art, research thesis by Andrew Nicholson
This research project is centred on a case study of the Bimblebox: art-science-nature touring exhibition, and associated media. The research project commenced in February 2016 and is now in the active research phase through survey of a range of people who have interacted with the exhibition, either through its physical display, its paper catalogue, or the companion digital catalogue app designed for the exhibition.
more information on this research here.

Carbon Dating, installation detail, 2013, Alison Clouston & Boyd, photo Carl Warner
To see posts about this exhibition:
Bimblebox: art – science – nature archives