Instruments of Democracy at Cementa15

DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE PDF

The Williams River Valley Artists’ Project will present Instruments of Democracy in Cementa15 at the Kandos Scout Hall, open 10am to 4pm, 9–12 April 2015

At 10am and 2pm each day WRVAP’s project is animated by Instruments of Democracy, a performance work that takes on the role of witness to non-violent direct action. The piece has been developed over six months through workshopping our responses to the courage, ingenuity, discipline and stamina of environmental activists—from all walks of life—who oppose the terrible impacts of open-cut and long wall coal mining, and CSG/fracking. Vast environmental destruction is wreaked by large corporations that do not have the right to misuse, contaminate and deplete our ground water, destroy forests and natural habitats, and fray the social fabric of farming communities. When government fails, people act: urgent concern about the future is driving a new form of democracy. Instruments of Democracy is inspired by this development, especially by the the art-like actions using lock-on devices that we witnessed in the Leard, Newcastle and Gloucester blockades. It was also prompted by a performance that also bears witness—An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale by Alexandra Pirici & Manuel Pelmuș—that was seen by WRVAP artists in Venice in 2013. 

Alongside the collaborative Instruments of Democracy performance, there are individual artworks by WRVAP artists:

•Suzanne Bartos Another Meeting Pool (after Merlyn Skipper) (2015) puppets

• Neil Berecry-Brown Social Licence (2013) text

• Sue Callanan Breath by Degrees (2015) coal, felt

• Juliet Fowler Smith Barking Owls and Weeping Woodlands (2015) drawing on paper, mixed media

• Noelene Lucas Death by Coal (2015) video

• Margaret Roberts Life 4 Coal (2015) floor cut-outs

• Toni Warburton AgitPots H2O (2015) clay and ceramic

• David Watson Australian Navigators (2015) photographs, Koala Diplomacy (2015) prayer flags, Checkout + Ransom Note (with Denise Corrigan) (2013) powerpoint

WVRAP would like to acknowledge and thank the Rev Peter Green and  Silver Street Baptist Mission Marrickville for providing access to facilities to help us develop this project.

At the Gloucester blockade

Juliet and Noelene at Gloucester yesterday

Instruments of Democracy planning

On Saturday we met at Mangrove Mountain to discuss our promised coal and CSG contribution to Cementa 15. We can see that science and health professionals have identified serious problems with the radical new forms of coal and gas mining that are spreading across NSW. We can also see that in the face of government inaction about these growing problems, an urgent sense of community concern for the future is spreading like a new form of democracy. Consequently we plan our contribution to Cementa 15 as Instruments of Democracy, inspired as much by artworks such as An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale  as by the art-like actions we have witnessed in the Leard, Newcastle and Gloucester blockades. 

ActUp 6 at Camp Wando - Release the Bats

Learning to address the problem of coal in non-violent direct action workshops and actions at Act Up 6, Release the Bats, at Camp Wando, Maules Creek, 1-3 November. 

Protest at Whitehaven AGM

For the polite protest outside Whitehaven AGM against Whitehaven's rude destruction of the Leard State Forest, protesters are asked to wear red and purple, the colours that weather charts are starting to use to forecast the 40+ degree temperatures that are becoming the norm each summer now. 

David and Margaret colour coordinated against Whitehaven's promise of No Future

Pacific Climate Warriors Flotilla, Newcastle Harbour

Yesterday WRVAP artist David Watson witnessed and participated in We are not drowning – we are fighting!, the Pacific Climate Warriors Flotilla on Newcastle Harbour.  see more

Mikaele Maiava from Tokelau

paddling partners - Caitlin Rawding (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) and David

Climate Warrior George Nacewa from Fiji with a message for the current Australian government

Leardblockade Shenanigans

We learned a lot from the #leardblockade shenanigans and hope to be back for more.