Video Link

Come on a dérive through the city with artist Sarah Lynch and ecologist Dean Schrieke as they wander into abandoned industrial sites, forgotten parklands and overgrown rail corridors. Terrain vague is increasingly recognised for interweaving social, political, and ecological networks.

Have you ever wondered what plants flourish in urban spaces and why? What are spontaneous plants and novel ecosystems? Come and find out what to look for when you next wander along a train line or through an abandoned urban space left to overgrow in the city.

Join Sarah and Dean as they integrate artistic and scientific discourse to unpick these networks, with a particular focus on their unique plant life.

About the Speakers

Sarah Lynch is currently based in Naarm (Melbourne) and works primarily across digital and analogue photography, video and installation. Lynch’s most recent work examines the diversity of the botanical world and the relationship between plants, people, and the ecosystems they inhabit.

Dean Schrieke is a PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne. Dean is interested in the functionality of ecological novelty, an umbrella term describing human-mediated change at different ecological levels. Dean's PhD research focuses on green roofs, engineered to grow plants on city rooftops.

Survival Exhibition runs 23rd March - April 9th, Rubicon ARI, North Melbourne

This project has been generously supported by the Victorian Government's Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative by Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria.