Cowgirls are Forever: Pollinator Tool Making and Worldbuilding Workshop

Join artist Merinda Davies for a hands-on workshop learning how to make your own human pollinator tool. Pollinators have declined at rates of 25-60% over the past 20 years (conservative estimates). If our current rates of species loss continues, there will be a time in our not-too-distant future when our systems for agricultural food production will collapse. This speculative tool-making workshop explores the kinds of tools that might be necessary for survival in a climate-impacted future. While we make these tools, we will practice writing and dreaming on what it means to collaboratively world-build, how we can expand onto each other's ideas, find tensions and move through them, how we might practice listening beyond the edges of our imaginations? We will work with found objects, plant materials, sticks, beeswax and string. Optional dress code: cowgirl No experience needed, all materials provided. All ages welcome. Participants under 16 are required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. About the artist: Merinda Davies is an artist, designer and curator using performance, movement, installation and conversation to investigate how we might thrive rather than merely survive within the realities of ecological collapse. At the core of her practice is a commitment to sensory and sensual intelligence as a foundation for relationality, between humans, other-than-human beings, and the landscapes we co-inhabit. She creates installations, videos and performances that ask how we might reorient ourselves within the present through speculating on future worlds. She grew up on Bundjalung Country in Northern NSW, and is currently living on Kombumerri Country in the Yugambeh region of South East QLD. Merinda’s solo and collaborative projects have most recently been commissioned by: State Library of Queensland, The Condensery, Moreton Bay Regional Gallery, Arts Northern Rivers, Lismore Regional Gallery, HOTA - Home of the Arts, BLEACH* Festival, Metro Arts, Institute of Modern Art, The Farm, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, City of Gold Coast, Outer Space and The Walls Artspace. Accessibility: The space is mobility accessible. The workshop facilitators can assist with any fine motor tasks if needed. Please contact us if you have concerns. Please contact us if you have concerns. For more information about general accessibility at CAT, please visit our Access page or get in touch. Please note, this workshop has limited capacity. If you can no longer attend, please cancel your ticket or get in touch.