Four Australian artists using experimental and progressive approaches explored the pressing issue of sustainability in Darling Quarter’s exhibition – Art for the Planet.

This innovative and thought-provoking group exhibition examined the crucial issue of sustainability, and aimed to make the viewer consider deeply their impact on the planet. The featured Australian artists used disciplines including painting, photography and sculpture to convey stories referencing nature, overconsumption, permanence and the environmental consequences of our lifestyles.

Dean Sewell is widely known for his documentary photography, concentrating his gaze on the social implications of the new globalised
world economy and the environmental consequences exerted by climate change.

David Cragg is a multidisciplinary artist of First Nations, Irish and Scottish descent, working as a muralist, designer, writer, builder, photographer, sculptor and youth/disability community worker. His art-making is primarily comprised of reclaimed materials such as half-full tins of paint, used formply and damaged supplies from worksites, all of which would otherwise end up in landfill.

Jane Gillings’ artwork was constructed largely with found materials. In an attempt to limit landfill, she collects discarded objects and fills her studio with them.

They are then are meticulously sorted and examined for sculptural potential, eventually being cut, shaped, melted, wired, glued and presented as something else – something unlikely to be discarded.

Ro Murray works predominantly in an installation-based multidisciplinary manner, often ephemeral in nature and with the deliberate intention not to make stand-alone objects. She
 is interested in her work’s ability to communicate, and negotiates thorny topics on
the news, including (un)natural environments, human rights, climate change, unsustainable energy and refugees.

Art for the Planet brought attention to the urgent need for individuals to acknowledge their impact on the environment and act accordingly, highlighting that everything is interconnected: what we do to our world, we do to ourselves. After all, if we don’t save our planet, no one else will.

Art for the Planet was presented by Darling Quarter, curated and produced by aMBUSH Gallery – an initiative of Wiltshire + Dimas.