The Biennale of Sydney and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain announced the Australian premiere of The Great Animal Orchestra.

The environmentally focused work by American pioneer soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause and London-based collective United Visual Artists will be presented free of charge at the Stargazer Lawn, Barangaroo for the duration of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, titled rīvus, from 12 March to 13 June 2022. Bookings are now open for timed ticketed entry to the immersive artwork.

A collision of culture and nature, The Great Animal Orchestra will take visitors out of city life and into tropical grasslands, savannas and Arctic tundra for an ‘otherworldly encounter’ with a soundscape of 15,000 animal species recorded over the last 50 years. After working with musicians like The Doors and creating effects for film scores including Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Bernie Krause turned his back on studio work and headed outdoors to focus on field recording.

Krause’s unparalleled research is a rare insight into the unseen world of animals. It reveals the beauty and the intricacy of animal vocalisations, which are now in danger of being silenced by human activity. Through his recording, Krause implores us to start listening before hush descends on the ‘great animal orchestra’. The immersive soundscape comes to life with visualisations, created by United Visual Artists, of each animal’s contributions to the ‘orchestra’ in vulnerable habitats in Africa, North America, the Pacific Ocean and the Amazonas (Amazon River).

Culture Vault – a new curated platform and creative agency that presents and sells high-quality NFTs and helps artists and cultural brands navigate the blockchain – will launch its web3 platform on 3 February 2022 followed by a physical-meets-digital (phygital) exhibition called ‘The Future is Phygital’ presented at Sydney’s Verona Studios in March.

Culture Vault bridges the gap between the traditional art world and the crypto-community. It consists of a curated platform and creative agency, offering a one stop shop for both first-time NFT-buyers and seasoned digital art collectors to acquire a curated selection of premium NFTs from some of the world’s leading artists. Culture Vault’s creative agency works with cultural brands and institutions to create, mint, sell and display their NFTs on chain – helping them to drive revenue, and foster community engagement and connection in new ways.

The platform will include NFTs by artists and creatives  including Reko Rennie, Shantell Martin, Adam Briggs, Romance Was Born, Serwah Attafua, Bianca Beers, Stephen Ormandy, Mona Chalabi, Dan Hong, The Richard Bernstein Estate, Thea Anamara Perkins, Sebastian Leon, Fallen Fruit, Dylan Mooney, and The Huxleys.

Carriageworks announced their first confirmed projects within a strong 2022 program to be presented across the Redfern-based multi-arts precinct, spanning dance, music, theatre and visual arts with a focus on First Nations and female-led programming. The program, with further highlights to be announced in the coming months, includes new solo exhibitions by Karla Dickens, Mel O’Callaghan, Thea Anamara Perkins; a world premiere performance by interdisciplinary artist Kaz Therese and a focused program celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the National Black Theatre and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

During the first half of 2022, a significant program of repair, maintenance, and upgrade of the unique heritage Carriageworks building will be undertaken by Create Infrastructure and Public Works NSW. Works will improve technology and sustainability of lighting systems, provisions for events, the replacement of theatre floors and general upgrade work to the fabric of the building, improving the Carriageworks experience for artists and audiences alike. These important improvements to the site will see Carriageworks closed to the public from February through until 29 April 2022, with the exception of Carriageworks Farmers Markets which will continue to operate every Saturday.

Bundanon will open the doors publicly to its new Art Museum and Bridge for Creative Learning from Saturday 29 January 2022, with an official ceremony and festival of events being held on Saturday 5 March 2022, including live music and performance. Bundanon will deliver three exhibition seasons annually, with a dramatically expanded range of on-site events including tailored learning and artistic residency programs.

Embedded within the landscape, the new 500m2 Bundanon Art Museum, designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects will present a year-round program of exhibitions of modern, contemporary, and First Nations art, as well as new commissions. It includes a state-of-the-art storage facility that will house and protect Bundanon’s extensive $46.5 million collection of some 4,000 items.

Anna Schwartz Gallery will open on 2nd February 2022 with a group exhibition structured as a series of large-scale solo video installations that will evolve over time until 7 May 2022. The exhibition will feature the work of leading video artists including Alberta Whittle, Cyprien Gaillard, Sarah Morris, Haris Epaminonda, Yael Bartana, James Nguyen & Victoria Pham and Hiwa K.

Peripheral Vision will inaugurate video works in Australia that, collectively, provide a contemporary view of the world from a variety of perspectives. Curated by Lewis Gilbert, creative director at A Vibe Called Tech, and Tania Doropoulos, the selection of works was influenced by the last occasions they were physically able to view art together, and their subsequent and ongoing digital/virtual exchange and dialogue since borders closed. An exchange that was able to be maintained through video, which has become a primary medium for us to engage new work and its ideas.

Image caption: Alberta Whittle, HOLDING THE LINE (June 2020), 2020, 2K and HD video, mobile phone footage 13 minutes.

Courtesy the artist & Copperfield

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will collaborate with Circa Contemporary Circus for the vibrant Italian Baroque with Circa, featuring a special guest performance by Italian baritone Renato Dolcini. A tour through the music of four Italian cities and their multi-layered pasts, the concert series will open at City Recital Hall on 19 – 27 January 2022.

The concerts mark the Brandenburg’s fourth collaboration with internationally acclaimed contemporary circus company Circa. Daring new choreography from circus visionary Yaron Lifschitz combines musicians and acrobats in a vibrant performance of a pasticcio by Paul Dyer with music by Vivaldi, Falconieri, Caccini and Corelli.

Carriageworks, one of Australia’s largest multi-arts precincts, has today unveiled a new large-scale wall assemblage titled Return to Sender by acclaimed Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens. Installed in the Carriageworks public space and presented free to the public until 30 January 2022, the installation reworks found postcards picturing First Nations people from the turn of last century with contemporary representations of First Nations Australians.

In a show of pride and defiance, these racist postcards are stamped for return to their sender. Dickens rescales the postcards and inserts two defiant contemporary portraits of First Australians into the scene. Printed on industrial tarpaulin, these collaged images are framed with domestic detritus, from rusted corrugated iron to unhoused front fences and decapitated letter boxes, sealing the installation with a 200-kilogram prison door.