Image courtesy of Timeline Images.

This Enormous Collaborative Beach Artwork Is Actually A Protest

A group of Sunshine Coast-based creatives create an ephemeral work to protest government investment in gas and advocate for an Indigenous knowledge-based alternative.

Writer
Sasha Aarons
25th of September 2020

A coalition of artists, designers and educators on the Sunshine Coast have created a large-scale public artwork in protest of the federal government’s newly announced ‘gas-led recovery’ plan.

Titled Eye of the Future, the 20-metre wide artwork was carved into the sand at Queensland’s Peregian Beach on Thursday 17th September. It last only until high tide where it was then washed away by waves, to survive in photographic and video form, which can be seen here.

Karina and Sam Seljak of closed-loop textile brand Seljak collaborated with longtime friend Rose Feely on the design before taking it to Gabrielle Quakawoot, founder of The Art of String Theory, to translate it to a large-scale beach artwork. The Art of String Theory is an organisation advocating methods of Indigenous knowledge, including recognising ancient geometry systems in ecological patterns.

The collaborators are joining the call of many other organisations around the country such as Schools Strike for Climate, AYCC and Seed Mob for governments to cut investment in fossil fuel projects and focus recovery spending on resourcing Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islander-led solutions, creating community-focussed jobs that combat the negative effects of the climate crisis, and renewable energy schemes.

In short, the slogan is: #fundourfuturenotgas .

‘We at Seljak Brand, had been pondering appropriate and impactful climate actions in the face of so many environmental and economic challenges this year, and thought the beach was a great COVID-safe canvas,’ explains Karina. ‘This group of women suddenly appeared as a perfect team of collaborators to activate a beach-scape!’

See the full video of the finished beach artwork here

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