Explore ‘All That is Alive’ now showing at UTS Gallery, Sydney, to experience the beautiful woven ring component of ‘Dabiyil Bajara’ by Sonja Carmichael & Elisa Jane Carmichael, and ‘Shell Memories’ by Elisa Jane Carmichael.
Exhibition dates: 18 September—12 December 2025
Location: UTS Gallery, Level 4, 702 Harris St Ultimo NSW 2007
‘Dabiyil Bajara (Water Footprints)’ comprises twenty-three woven rings made from Ungaire (natural fibre) and ghost net (synthetic fibres/ recycled materials). The work is a document of care, of holding Country close, of mutual reciprocity between momentary custodians and the Country they care for—it is a work made about and emerging from mothers and daughters.
‘Shell Memories’ is a double-sided cyanotype that visualises oyster middens on Quandamooka Country—representing sustainable shellfish, gathering and feasting. In speaking of this artwork, Elisa Jane Carmichael writes that “My memories of shells stem from a young age. We grew up walking alongside middens created by our Ancestors over thousands of generations.”
The exhibition ‘All that is Alive’ draws “on ancient kinships and ancestral knowledge, mycelial intelligence and fermentation, non-hierarchical and interspecies relations, machine desire and collective agency, the artworks in the exhibition engage with the interconnected practices that sustain and define life – human and otherwise.” Visit until December 12, 2025.
Images: Jacquie Manning. Courtesy of the artists and UTS Gallery.
