Coalface 2014

Coalface 2014 is our expansive art project that has evolved over two years to talk about coal and its impact on Australian nature. It incorporates sculpture, sound, performance, community engagement, video, a webpage and a greenhouse audit and off-set. 153 musicians from around the world gave voice to the 153 species of birds found on Bimblebox Nature Refuge, threatened by a gigantic coal mine. Thirty children made drawings of the birds. These collaborative elements can be seen and heard here. Click here to find it. The soundtrack composed from the musicians’ birdcalls is wired into a sculptural installation. The Coalface mask and Coal-ship-shoes are made from aluminium and recycled auto rubber. Coalface has in its sights, (as video in the eye-sockets), the innocent birds taking water at the old stockyard trough on Bimblebox; and refugee birds’ nests built with human detritus. Performances take place, risky navigation in clumsy vessels. The installation Coalface 2014 and our webpages documenting the participation of musicians and children are part of the nationally touring exhibition “Bimblebox: art – science – nature”. Coalface performances Manly Art Gallery 1+3 July 2016 Cast in order of appearance: Coalface Alison Clouston, Tawny Frogmouth Boyd contrabass clarinet, Mistletoebird Tony Gorman alto clarinet, Pied Butcherbird Shawna O’Neill clarinet, Stubble Quail Katrina Fawns alto saxophone, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Paul Cutlan Eb clarinet, Brown Songlark James Nightingale alto saxophone, Singing Bushlark (Horsfield’s) Sandy Evans soprano saxophone, Torresian Crow Ellen Kirkwood trumpet, Grey Shrike-thrush Trevor Brown bass clarinet, Brush Cuckoo Ruth Wells soprano saxophone, Australian Bustard Benjamin Samuels bass clarinet, Noisy Friarbird Melissa Mony alto saxophone. Immersive installation at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Cementa22, a huge tree in the Hall, a choir, a procession, Wiradjuri Language The Serpent, the weather, a salvaged tree Artwork for action on climate art and science collaboration on the dragon lizard C. mirrityana for Art of Threatened Species A memorial for the end of coal The Art of Threatened Species- first field trip Performance and installation for Clandulla State Gallery Survey II. Engaging community for a weekend of performance, music and installation Rehearsing NatureLovers for Planet Nowra Bundanon Trust 2017 Installation and children’s workshop for the exhibition “Wonder: contemporary art for children” Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Sydney A whole crushed house dumped in the Royal National Park This iteration draws on the work currently touring and this location – at the backstage door of the grand Leichhardt Town Hall Residency and performance in Fall Norway We collaborate with 153 bird species, 153 musicians, and 30 children to take on Big Coal Explores the issues surrounding coal seam gas iBook documenting our installation BIRD CRY that was destroyed by fire Made in response to The Bimblebox Nature Refuge and Big Coal developments in Queensland Timbers stitched with speaker wiring for sound Alison holds a contact mic to Rhonda's stomachs at Bimblebox Studio fire materials, interactive soundtrack When lightning burnt our studio to the ground we saw our artworks reduced to ashes, our tools to rust. On the Wollondilly River at Goulburn "... focus on the terrible finality of extinction..." Installation for "Climate Changing Climate" Goulburn Regional Gallery and The Tin Sheds Installation for "Grounded; art, activism, environment" Campbelltown A floating work easvedrops on a river and the sounds of the human body Eavesdropping on Koi/Carp in a Japanese Garden 40 Australian native birds’ nests, interactive soundtrack, wiring ‘tree’ or stave. A chanting city of bones. A winding, sounding chain of twigs leads through a complex of installations in the rooms of an old house. Documenting a performance collaboration between sculptors and musicians An installation that was also a stage set and sculptures that were also costumes– this project for the 1988 Adelaide Festival was the culmination of Alison’s 5 month artist-in-residency at the Jam Factory. PAGES