Exhibitions

Extinction Studies

Opens 18-02-2022,  closes 31-12-2023

Link Foyer

Extinction Studies was originally conceived as a twelve-month durational performance by Tasmanian artist Lucienne Rickard, highlighting the critical issue of species extinction.

The first iteration of the project ran from 6 September 2019, and was extended following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic until 24 January 2021.

Lucienne will recommence Extinction Studies at TMAG in 2022, spending several days per week in TMAG's Link Foyer drawing a critically-endangered Australian plant or animal species. She will then erase the drawing and begin to draw a different critically-endangered Australian species on the same sheet of paper. She will then erase it again.

This process of drawing and erasure, or evolution and extinction, is repeated in full knowledge that the paper will deteriorate and eraser shavings will accumulate.

The project title Extinction Studies deliberately merges art and science, a ‘study’ being both a technical art term – for a drawing or sketch done in preparation – and more generally understood as the practice of devoting time and attention to understanding a topic.

As an artist, Lucienne has crafted a career through drawing yet she remains deeply concerned about the future of biodiversity and the natural world.

Follow Lucienne’s progress on Instagram. Educators can download the Teacher Guide prepared for the first iteration of Extinction Studies here.

Extinction Studies is commissioned by Detached Cultural Organisation and presented by TMAG.

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Image details: Lucienne Rickard (b. 1981), Extinction Studies 2019, graphite on paper.