Curated by Felicity Spear
Exhibition continuing to August 30, 2026
WAMA – at Gariwerd, Halls Gap, Victoria
WAMA at Gariwerd, the Grampians, builds connections between nature and culture, science and art, prompting us to think about human culture not as separate from, but intertwined with Earth’s ecological systems.
The exhibition brings together a group of environmentally active and multi-disciplinary artists who focus on the Kingdom Fungi, a mysterious world of its own, neither plant nor animal, which acts as the vital bridge between interspecies life.
Fungi underpin all ecosystems, living in water, on trees, in the air, and even on our bodies. Their networks span kilometres and they are linked to every function on the planet, from food security to pharmaceutical medicines. Despite this, they remain largely misunderstood and their future is threatened by human influences which are counterproductive to all life on Earth.
The artists focus on the cycles of life, death, and renewal that exist within the often hidden world beneath our feet. Exhibiting artists include celebrated UK environmental artist Chris Drury, professional musician and eco-sound artist Vicki Hallett, environmental photographer Alison Pouliot, tactile artists Gracia & Louise, and award winning artists Sam Leach, Chris Henschke and Debbie Symons, and the curator Felicity Spear.
It is a multi-sensory exhibition featuring a mix of traditional and experimental media which reflect relationships between art and science. These include works created from local earth and fungus materials, paintings based on data that tracks how mushrooms grow, an artists’ book which stretches eight meters across the gallery, digital projections of the forest floor, sound installations made from recordings of tree roots and soil, and live experiments where sensors track the movement of growing fungi.
The artists invite you to imagine what it might feel like to see, hear, or smell species which are often remote from the immediacy of our human senses. They ask you to imagine what it might feel like to be something other than human through mutualistic and symbiotic exchanges.
Situated at the foothills of Gariwerd/Grampians National Park, WAMA offers a distinctive new cultural experience that unites contemporary art and environmental consciousness across a 16-hectare precinct, and includes the Gariwerd Endemic Botanic Garden and Jallukar Native Grasslands alongside the National Centre for Environmental Art – Australia’s only institution dedicated exclusively to the intersection of art and the environment.
Written by Dr Felicity Spear, March 2026