An inspiring art initiative has opened at the National Museum of Australia exploring the beauty within agriculture. Earth Canvas is a touring exhibition teaming up Australian artists with regenerative farmers between the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers. The free multimedia showcase is on until 30 October.
The practice of regenerative farming sees landowners take holistic approaches to land management, working with their lands to rehabilitate and enhance their ecosystems. This is done by various methods including restoring soil health and planting native and introduced flora to encourage growth and protect against natural disasters like fires. Regenerative farms reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make better use of our natural resources, which can help to mitigate climate change.
Empathy with the land is at the forefront of the works on display, developed by Earth Canvas: Art in Ag, an organisation that connects people to the land through art projects, talks, and open days. The driving force behind it is Gillian Sanbrook, a cattle farmer who has been working in agriculture since she left school and has a deep connection to the land she manages.
Sanbrook has always been mindful of her land practices, recalling how she and her former husband were seen as hippies for using language like ‘holistic’ and ‘biodiversity’. However, she is grateful the tides seem to be changing with more people embracing the regenerative movement.
“Everyone eats food, including animals and humans; we’re all microbes, we’re all eating food. We need to have that closed circuit of life and decay to keep the world ticking, we can’t just take and send it up into the air,” Sanbrook said.
Being associated with farmers who put production above all else, she has seen the impact these practices can have on our natural landscapes. Sanbrook hopes the project can reconnect consumers to the land that provides for us and help us care about what happens to it. She believes artists are the right people to highlight the importance of the way we care for our land as they are often at the forefront of environmental or social crises.
“We need to learn from artists. They are like the canary in a coal mine; they often see things we don’t,” Sanbrook said.
Adding an artist and a farm with each new stop, the exhibition has reached its final destination here in Canberra. Our stop’s local artist was Alexander Boynes, who spent time on The Millpost farm near Bungendore, NSW, which is owned and cared for by the Watson family.
Boynes said it is important when talking about regeneration that the conversation includes the regeneration of relationships and community; to find a positive way forward for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. In what he says is his gentlest work, Boynes centred himself on the farm’s Indigenous axe quarry, which the Watsons have given back to its traditional owners. The quarry is not portrayed in the piece, rather the viewer sees the farm from the perspective of being in the quarry.
“The things that are not seen are just as important as the things that are. We have a very painful history and I think walking gently into the future is the positive way to go,” Boynes said.
Boynes created his work, Listening Across Time, by developing paint directly onto aluminium sheets and then laying a video montage over the top. Throughout the montage, subtle changes tell the story of a day on the farm – sheep appear, a farmer rides a bike, clouds move, the sun fades, and stars come out.
Boynes spent election day in May completing the filming portion of the piece, saying he spent the time thinking about what the voting outcome could mean for the future of our land. It is also the first piece he and collaborator, Tristan Parr, have worked on since the passing of Boynes’ mother, environmental artist Mandy Martin, last year.
“There are a lot of things tied up in this work for me; personal loss and loss of what we are doing to the environment, trying to find regeneration and hope and positivity out of sadness or grief,” Boynes said.
Harry Watson, grazier at the Millpost, said he was glad Boynes used the axe quarry as the focal point of his piece, as it is an important part of their land. If Boynes hadn’t already known their farm and the quarry site, he would have taken him there.
“It’s a really special spot with a lot of history and to see someone else’s perspective that really honours that but also adds to it; it’s a really wonderful thing for us,” Watson said.
Discover the art in agriculture in Earth Canvas at the National Museum of Australia until 30 October; nma.gov.au
Get local, national and world news, plus sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
