Abstract

In many parts of Australia, water cycles can be fickle, bringing a sense of unpredictability and risk to our “wait for water.” In the 2016 art exhibition, “Waiting for Water,” artists Sarah Pirrie (Darwin), Suzi Lyon (Alice Springs), and Amy Jackett (Hobart) visually responded to witnessing impacts of water changes in their local environments. Exhibited simultaneously in Darwin and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, and Lake St Clair in Tasmania, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue explored relationships with water across Australia, from the dry tropical Top End to arid Central Australia to the rugged topography of temperate Tasmania. The project included a collaboration with palaeoecologist Penny Jones to bring an ecological perspective to bear on our artistic points of focus. Jones contributed three ecological essays in the exhibition catalogue, finding a commonality in societal learning through climatic variability. The aim of the project was to invite a collective discourse around our environmental future of waiting for water.