L U N A R_B I O M E

Grafton Regional Gallery- Feb 14th- April 12th, 2026

L U N A R_B I O M E brings together notions of loss, imagination and play in response to the collective existential reckoning of the times. Central to the exhibition sits a deep questioning of world views shaped by extractive colonial constructs that have deadened the world into living and non-living; human and other. The exhibition suggests a re-reasoning of identity narratives both personal and collective through our relationships to death and deep time cycles, furthering a re-framing of hope through action.

To meditate on extinction within contemporary frameworks that prioritise power, accumulation and anthropocentric narratives is to question the colonial foundations of modernity. It is within this contemplation that reverence can emerge. Reverence that honours the Earth beyond human exceptionalism and into an imaginary that re-connects community and aligns deep care for all that holds.

Through a deep imaginative and collaborative approach, the Esk Studio collective seeks to question through process, the dominant paradigms of cultural individualism and competition within an ethos of connection and community. This exhibition was developed through a co-creational process Al Stark, Aviva Reed, Antoinette O’Brien, Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and timecodespace. L U N A R_B I O M E was formed through an extensive communal process involving a series of residencies with artists gathering in life and discussion whilst forming emergent thinking systems and creative work in response to extinction, collapse, and community resilience. It was produced by Esk Studio, on Yaegl Country and was made possible through support of Create NSW.

L U N A R_ B I O M E extended beyond the presentation of an exhibition into its public program, creating opportunities for audiences to engage with environmental loss as an embodied, emotional and collective experience. The public-facing approach invited people to slow down, participate and reflect on the cycles of life, death and regeneration, and on the interdependence of human and more-than-human worlds through gathering, workshops and storytelling.