Bundanon art museum announces first exhibition for 2025

Isabel and Alfredo Azquilian, Dwell/in/place, Planet Utopia 2024, Japanishes Palais, Dresden. Photo: Oliver Killi.
Courtesy the artists and Künstlerische Leiterin Kinderbiennale

Bundanon is located on 1,000 hectares of bush and parkland overlooking the Shoalhaven River, on the South Coast of New South Wales, two and a half hours from Sydney. Established in 1993, it was gifted to the Australian people by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, representing one of the most significant acts of philanthropy in the history of the arts in Australia.

Bundanon has just announced the first exhibition in its 2025 program, Thinking together: Exchanges with the natural world, which will present major commissions by contemporary artists Robert Andrew, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan and Keg de Souza, presented alongside intricate paintings by the Martu communities of central Western Australia, and video works by Sorawit Songsataya and Tina Stefanou, from 1 March 8 June 2025.

Isabel and Alfredo Azquilian with Dwell/in/place, Planet Utopia 2024, Japanishes Palais, Dresden. Photo: Oliver Killi.
Courtesy the artists and Künstlerische Leiterin Kinderbiennale

Thinking together: Exchanges with the natural world explores themes of reciprocity and collaboration between the human and non-human. Each work responds to notions of community, and considers the possibility that new knowledge can only be created through a process of thinking together, via communal making, cooperation between the species and embodying First Nations practices of knowledge sharing.

A central pillar of this approach is presented in the large-scale collaborative paintings of the Martu communities of central Western Australia, reflecting long histories of creating together that strengthens culture and grounds knowledge in place. These works reflect a complex web of relationships, linking environmental and ritual knowledge, geographic information and ancestral stories, whilst also building strong connections between the artists who come together to paint.

Filipino-born artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan are renowned for their collaborative practice spanning more than 20 years. Drawing from personal experiences of global human movement, their highly detailed installations and sculptures use everyday materials to explore ideas of identity, migration and displacement.

For Thinking together, the Aquilizans will work closely with visitors, schools and local community members to create a major accumulative sculpture and drawing installation exploring the tree as a symbol of habitat and home. In a collaboration with Bundanon, the artists have designed an inclusive and interactive experience, where visitors can contribute to the evolving sculptural installation.

The Shoalhaven landscape made a strong impression upon the artists when they undertook their site visit to Bundanon – as it did upon Arthur and Yvonne Boyd when they visited in the late 1970s – and this new commission reflects an impulse to honour the natural world that is shared. The Aquilizans often address global issues of land clearing and overpopulation, suggesting audiences imagine a different world – one that deeply aligns with the Boyd vision for environmental preservation and regeneration.

Bundanon’s mission is to operate the property as a centre for the creative arts and education, for scientific research and a place to explore landscape and engage with First Nations history and culture. The Bundanon Collection features some 1,448 works by Arthur Boyd together with Boyd’s contemporaries including Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. Bundanon’s residency program and its learning programs, are an investment in Australia’s future.

Learn more about Bundanon at https://www.bundanon.com.au/