A major new exhibition showing at Wollongong Art Gallery interweaves contemporary art, climate science and materials science.
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Alchemical Worlds' is the brainchild of University of Wollongong artist-researchers Dr Agnieszka Golda and Dr Jo Law as well as artist Martin Johnson.
The exhibition brings together fields of art, design, materials science, paleoclimatology and filmmaking with philosophies of alchemy and materials transformation to explore the interconnectedness of ecosystems in the Illawarra.
The multifaceted exhibition features wall hangings, paintings, sculptures, animations, projection mapping, and textile designs.
Dr Golda said the protagonists of Alchemical Worlds were non-human entities: corals, trees and fungi - as the 'bioarchivists' that hold climate records for millions of years, as the great recycler, as the ultimate alchemists.
Golda, Johnson and Law give life to these ecological tales through an experimental use of sustainable materials such as linen, reclaimed wood, eco-graphene and recycled silver wire.
In their works, images of the world's oldest living tree the 5000 year-old Great Basin Bristlecone Pine and the 2000 year-old brain coral become a five-metre hand screen-printed repeat-pattern.
As exhibition viewers hover their hands over the conductive graphene prints a series of animations are activated.
Alchemical Worlds runs until August 15.
Robyn Williams, who hosts The Science Show on ABC Radio National, will officially open the exhibition from 6.30pm on Saturday, May 29.
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