At PICA we recognise that we are situated within the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects and offer our gratitude to Elders past and present. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their care and continued connection to culture, community and Country.

Always was, always will be.

Galleries are open 12–5pm. Our exhibitions are always free.

Meet Me In The Garden

Sites of Care: Bringing the Garden into the Gallery

Sites of Care: Bringing the Garden into the Gallery

Join current PICA Quick Response Artists-in-Residence Meet Me In The Garden in conversation with local artists Donna Franklin and Sophie Nixon as they explore the garden as a space of care, interdependence and creative practice. 

Bringing elements of the garden into the gallery, these artists illuminate the urgent challenges of climate change while inviting us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world. Gardens are not neutral spaces. They are sites of care, control and resilience, shaped by interdependence between human and more-than-human life. What shifts when we bring these living, responsive spaces into the context of contemporary art?  

This conversation traces the fertile intersections between art and gardening, asking what it means to grow, repair, and create in an era of ecological uncertainty. 

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About the artists

Donna Franklin (she/her) is a bioartist working with fungi and microbiology, using living materials to explore ecological and political themes. Her work encourages empathy for nonhuman life and extends into education and curation, earning her a doctorate in 2017. She also runs art-science workshops and has taught cultural theory at ECU and UWA. She has been awarded an MA at SymbioticA and ECU, and recently an ARSBioarctica residency in Finland. Selected exhibitions include; DeMonstrable LWAG, BEAPworks JCG, FuturoTextiles Italy, ARS Electronica07, Science Gallery Ireland, Second Skin Taiwan, USST China, RMIT, Vitra Design Museum Germany. 

 Sophie G Nixon (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist working with textiles. They often incorporate plants into their soft sculptures and installations. Their practice centres on healing, repair, and material consciousness, and they facilitate hand-stitching and mending workshops. Based at ROOK ARI in Carlisle, WA, Sophie has exhibited widely, including solo and group shows at Cool Change Contemporary, CAVES Gallery and Ellenbrook Arts, and has undertaken residencies at Midland Junction Arts Centre and Star Swamp. 

Claire Billie Bushby is an artist and curator interested in collaborative and participatory practices embracing interdependence with human and non-human environments. Their work is multidisciplinary, combining documentary processes with textiles, drawing, photography, sound, video and social events.  

Sze Tsang is a composer working across temporalities and histories. Tsang’s practice explores how combining sounds, visuals, geospatial information and environmental data can express the multi-layered narratives on history and climate within place. 

Mark Wahlsten is an illustrator and designer interested in understanding the landscapes he belongs to, how he grieves and how to feel useful through examining barriers arising from colonial designs of digital communication systems.