Ecological, psychedelic and alchemical art at Garden States 2022
Lophophora williamsii and Trichocereus pachanoi. Watercolour by IzWoz.
For those interested in art and design, December’s Garden States conference includes a special focus on creatives exploring ethnobotanical and transcendent ideas through their work.
Art can alter consciousness too. As well as beautiful displayed works from Australian visionary artists such as IzWoz, Garden States 2022 will feature a variety of lectures, panels and unique content on the topic intersecting art and altered states. There are amazing original artworks to be won in the EGA Raffle, too!
Friday
Join artist and filmmaker Lynette Wallworth’s talk ‘Transcendent Technology: Shamanism in the Digital Age’ as she discusses the creative journey she experienced while co-creating her ground-breaking Virtual Reality work Awavena with a Brazilian Amazonian tribe, and how it has shaped her understanding of the potential for new immersive technologies to be used in support of current clinical trials.
Saturday
Spatial designer, researcher and educator Anna Conrick’s lecture ‘Bill Richard’s Living Room: How are we Designing Psychedelic Clinical Spaces?’ discusses the role of space and spatial design practice in the emerging field of psychedelic therapies. Considering comfort and safety within clinical environments, it asks whether the idea of the “living room” is the optimal spatial configuration to contain therapeutic psychedelic experiences or if we should be rethinking the way we situate these experiences.
Sunday
Artist Janet Laurence’s lecture ‘The Alchemical Life’ presents collected images and artworks incorporating a number of mediums that reference the lives and relationships of plants. This ‘alchemical life’ embodies the possibility of transformation and a fabricated realm that is based on research as well as imaginings, resulting in the creation of sensitive, immersive art that reflects the organic and transient, and is a testament to the idea that plants live, breathe and dream.
Step up to the mic to give a micro talk, performance, sermon, magic trick or anything else you can muster at the Sunday lunchtime ‘Psychedelic Soapbox’ – an anarchistic, multidimensional variety hour hosted by artist Ceri Hann and a cast of trillions (if we count microbes) or maybe just a single ventriloquist puppet. Ceri will be roving throughout the weekend seeking willing participants to enlist.
The discussion panel ‘Breathed into Being: Ecodelia in Contemporary Art’ brings together four artists – Andrew Goodman, Janet Laurence, Nick Dorey and Adele Wilkes – currently exploring ecology, alchemy, consciousness and ethnobotany though their creative practices and research. This panel, facilitated by art critic, writer, artist and lecturer Tessa Laird, considers the diverse approaches of artists attempting to communicate aspects of the ineffable, subtle, transcendent and esoteric by observing and learning from the more-than-human species on which our very existence depends.
Finally, a number of Australian visionary and psychedelic artists will be featured in the EGA print journal and displayed as large fabric banners at the event (available to purchase). All sales support the artists and EGA. Artists include longtime EGA collaborators and kindred spirits, IzWoz, SpaceBeingz Continuum, BioFreQ, Bryan Itch and Stiff Ives.
Remember, Garden States 2022 is a hybrid conference, featuring leading psychedelic, botanical and mycological minds including David Holmgren, Dr Margaret Ross, Janet Laurence, Renee Harvey, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Dr Alison Pouliot, Lynette Wallworth, Snu Voogelbreinder, and luminaries Mark Pesce, The Seed SistAs, John Seed, and Keeper Trout, who will be streaming in.
