Project 69 - A Wardian Case

March 18 - 20, 2023

422 Princes Street

Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux

Images: Justin Spiers

Property Partner: Leanne Trower

A Wardian Case showed the flora of Kawau Island, home to Sir George Grey from 1862 to 1888. Grey’s shadow remains through the exotic plants and animals he introduced in pursuit of imperial prestige and prosperity. In quiet collaboration with the plants that endure, plant cell signals are sonified in chorus and cacophony. In hearing them, Kawau Island’s botanical transformation is traced and Grey’s legacy is unsettled.

Reading: Bruce E. Phillips, ‘Moving and Listening in Relations to Trees and ‘A Wardian Case’’:
Sound design: Richard Wills 

The artists acknowledge the additional support of the Dunedin City Council Creative Communities Scheme, The Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and Strawberry Sound, thank you.

Miranda Bellamy (she/her) and Amanda Fauteux (she/her) are partners and artistic collaborators who extend the stories of plants, rocks, and other non-human beings through site-specific research and experimentation. By listening to their stories and responding through interdisciplinary projects, they make space for the critical revision of settler-colonial histories. Since their collaborative practice began in 2019, they have attended artist residencies in New York and Vermont, USA, and in Scotland, and have exhibited their work in Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. They live in Ōtepoti, Aotearoa and within the traditional territory of Mi’kma’ki known as Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

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