Leaves: Eco-Anxiety

Amidst ecological polycrisis, what practical, cultural or mystical remedies are possible?

The works offer different ways into this question: A yarning circle creates space for conversations about Country, care and planting native species. Eucalyptus leaves frame and scent the gallery. A temple offers a place for quiet retreat and the care practices involved in drinking tea. Other works turn to ecological restoration, performance, ritual, magic and noise as ways of responding to environmental anxiety and grief.

Living with ecological crises has become a part of everyday life. Climate change, habitat loss and environmental degradation bring with them anxiety and grief about what is happening to the natural world, and uncertainty about what comes next.

Leaves: Eco-Anxiety brings together seven artists whose leaf-based artworks respond to these feelings sympathetically and remedially. Across the exhibition, caring for Country and restoring native habitat sit alongside contemplation, restoration, divination and drinking tea. Together, in different ways, these approaches consider how we might care for the natural world while living with the knowledge of its increasing precarity.