Relational Ecologies (2025) ACCA

Relational Ecologies was a project curated by Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art. Consisting of workshops, panel discussions and performances all drawn from the nation-wide Climate Aware Creative Practices (CACP) Network and participating artists in The Charge That Binds. The project manifested as an intensive and an ongoing laboratory, spanning the entire exhibition period.

Relational Ecologies questioned how we study and teach climate aware creative practices, with a special focus on practice that attends to Indigenous land justice. Coming together in understanding how climate, art and learning networks are deeply interdependent and influence one another, Relational Ecologies was an experiment in collaboratively generating and modelling climate aware creative methodologies. We worked collectively towards building expansive imaginaries in response to our planetary emergency.

The project emphasised what climate-aware artists do best: sharing, reworking and collaborating across precarious institutions while bringing a deep curiosity and awareness of materials and processes.

The project investigated the embeddedness of art practice and pedagogies within histories of colonialism and logics of extractive capitalism.

Relational Ecologies brought together an extensive network of climate-aware artists and practitioners: Beth Arnold, Terri Bird, Lauren Burrow, Alicia Frankovich, Mark Friedlander, Andrew Goodman, Tristen Harwood, Helen Hughes, Lucas Ihlein, Tessa Laird, Laniyuk, Katie Lee, Clare McCracken, Tara McDowell, Clare Milledge, Anastasia Murney, Courtney Pedersen, Jo Pollitt, Charles Robb, Micaela Sahhar, Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett, Lleah Smith, and Brooke Wandin.

The project was curated by Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris with curatorial advisors Tristen Harwood and Tara McDowell, and ACCA curators Shelley McSpedden and Elyse Goldfinch.

Relational Ecologies was supported by the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, along with institutional partners RMIT Melbourne, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at University of Melbourne, Public Exchange Bureau at Deakin University, Centre for People, Place and Planet at Edith Cowan University, and Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice at Queensland University of Technology.

Photos by Lucy Foster.