Raewyn Martyn is an artist and teacher living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. For this artist's talk she discusses the long histories of bio-based polymers, so-called 'new' materials.
The histories and futures of these materials involve parallel narratives of plasticity: personal, scientific, industrial, artistic, scientific, and the colonisation of these stories. Indigenous-led anti-colonial science, art and activism remind us of plasticity beyond oil industry petro-hegemony, and our much longer relationships and responsibilities to both fossil and bio-based plastics (Liboiron and Ngata).
Raewyn's work with biopolymers grew out of a desire to make paintings that could become liquid again, leading to collaborations with scientists and filmmakers to understand a range of biopolymers and how they behave beyond industrial applications. In the spirit of arts-based understanding, this session will include some hands-on material experiments during the talk.
https://walkerfalls.wordpress.com/
Photo Credit: Still shot from Biobitumen, a greywacke love poem for the Circuit Aura Festival, 2019. Photograph by Rachel O'Neill.
P-LAB is a series of artist-run talks and workshops at Pyramid Club. Coming up in the series:
16 June - Rosie Langabeer
23 June - Noa Records
30 June - Plan 9
7 July - Campbell Kneale
14 July - Kedron Parker
21 July - Raewyn Martyn
Thanks to Creative NZ for supporting Pyramid Club’s programme
