Group exhibition, May to August 2023, UNSW Library, Sydney, Australia.
With Deborah Lupton, Vaughan Wozniak O’Connor and Ash Watson.
More-than-Human Wellbeing drew on several research studies conducted in the Vitalities Lab and UNSW Node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. This exhibition used multimodal arts-based and multisensory methods – both digital and non-digital – to highlight ways of knowing and being within and beyond the world of self-tracking apps, electronic medical records, and smart devices for documenting illnesses and promoting health and wellbeing.
Through installation artworks and multisensory displays, this exhibition sought to attune visitors to their role in more-than-human ecologies and how their health and wellbeing and that of the planet is entangled. It showed that digital software, data, and devices are only part of the manifold ways that people learn about their bodies and their health. It acknowledged that human health is always more-than-human health, and that natural and human-made objects and spaces are intertwined.
For more information on the exhibition, its locations and associated output, visit our website.
Silken Anatomies, 2023, Digital print on satin and yoryu silk chiffon.
Megan Rose’s Silken Anatomies draws on collage and the material qualities of fabric, including the drape, sheen, and flow of silk to create a sensory experience. The panels depict reconfigurations of botanical and human forms that drift through ethereal curtains of sheer yoryu silk chiffon. Referencing shrouds, the artwork surrounds and holds the audience passing through. They combine an animal-made material (crafted by silkworms) with more-than-human images featuring humans and other living.
View all artworks via our art booklet.
Read more via our exhibition reader.