Climate Crisis, Extinction Crisis - when an artwork became collective

Yesterday I took Climate Crisis, Extinction Crisis to the lawns of Parliament House. The work began as a mixed-media assessment for my art school studies at Canberra Institute of Technology: a six-metre calico banner painted in red ochre and built up with kangaroo skin. From the beginning, I wanted it to do more than meet assessment requirements and then sit on a shelf. I wanted it to communicate something publicly, which is why the idea moved to Parliament House.

The banner worked exactly as I'd hoped. The red ochre had strength against the calico, while the kangaroo skin gave the lettering a physical, organic quality that paint alone can't achieve. The scale and the simplicity of the words - Climate Crisis, Extinction Crisis - allowed the message to remain clear.

But what really transformed the work was participation. Alongside the banner I set up moth printing blocks, paper, paperbark and ochre, and invited people to join in my making a moth and adding it to a collective collage. My teachers and fellow students came, as well as young people, older people, tradies, backpackers, ministerial advisers and people who simply happened to be passing by. The AFP officers working at Parliament House were friendly and supportive, which helped create an atmosphere where people felt comfortable stopping, talking and joining in.

The Bogong moths became an important part of the work. Once famous for arriving around Parliament House in enormous numbers, they brought another layer of meaning about biodiversity, ecological change and Country. Each printed moth was different, and as they accumulated across the paperbark the work stopped being only mine. Senator Fatima Payman and Allegra Spender came down, made a moth and took some back inside Parliament House, which felt like an lovely inversion of the old story of Bogong moths finding their way into the building.

For me, the biggest lesson was that the participatory element wasn't just an addition to the artwork - it became central to it. The process shifted from me making a statement to many people contributing to a shared one. I always think about Country, Culture and Community as interconnected, and yesterday the artwork shared the same message: materials, place, people and conversation all became part of the same story.

By the end of the day the banner was complete, there were lots of moths covering paperbark, photographs had been taken, selfies shared, and then eventually I packed everything away. The work was deliberately ephemeral, but the conversations, participation and shared making gave it life.

The work was temporary. The climate and extinction crises are not.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•