AEGIS RESEARCH NETWORK

Speakers: Associate Professor Linda Williams (Chair) with Felicity Spear and Dawn Stubbs & Lesley Duxbury

About the talk

This AEGIS seminar is focused on three artists in working regional Victoria and peri-urban environments whose research explores the impact of climate change on local environments. 

Artist and curator Felicity Spears introduces her BIOSPHERE exhibition in October 2021 (Stephen Mclaughlan Gallery) that reflected on the complexity and interconnected diversity of life in the Australian biosphere, on recent changes in local ecosystems, and the role of empathy in developing our sense of environmental belonging.  The exhibition reflects on the complexity and interconnected diversity of life within the biosphere, changes in ecosystems, and the role empathy plays in developing our sense of environmental belonging.

Felicity Spear has been a practising and exhibiting artist for the past thirty years. Working with a range of media, Spear's art practice references the manipulation of optical phenomena, light, data and image capture, the processes of mapping and the influences of history. She focuses on the way we observe the physical world over time, both the human and non-human, in order to generate models which emphasize their value and complexity.

Dawn Stubbs is an artist, environmental activist and passionate advocate for the preservation of Australia’s unique flora and fauna. For over 30 years she along with her husband Chris were the directors and owners of The Australian Wildlife Art Gallery in East Gippsland. During this time she became increasingly aware of Australia’s escalating species loss and witnessed the wholesale wrecking of the forests around her. In 2019 Dawn established CARE (Concerned Artists Resisting Extinction) and SATURDAYS FOR WILDLIFE with a core group of artists painting endangered species on fridge magnet cut-outs in public places and local festivals. In 2021 she initiated EMERGENCY – Species Loss exhibition involving 50 artists and 6 state-run and independent galleries throughout Gippsland during July and August.

Lesley Duxbury is an artist whose interests are in the atmospherics of landscape and the sky through which she questions perceptions of place. The phenomenological experiences of extended walks in remote regions of the world, such as Baffin Island in Arctic Canada, Tierra del Fuego and Iceland, are the impetus for her investigations. Lesley has been exhibiting for over 25 years in solo and group shows in Australia, Korea, Austria and Hong Kong. She has undertaken artist residencies in Iceland (2012, 2015 and 2017), the Australia Council VACB studio Paris (1996) and the Fremantle Arts Centre, WA (2017). She is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Art, RMIT University.