Cover Image: Artist Azman Shaw viewing the exhibition, with Barna, balya mirrak kuka birni (The land provides good food for all) by Brent Johnston and Monika Dvorak in the background. Credit: Mellen Burns.

A Vision of Radical Futures for Regional WA

For those who are unaware, Western Australia is big. It’s really big. 

At over 2.5 million square kilometres it’s not only our largest state, but roughly one third of the entire continent. And it includes nine major geographical regions, each with its own unique towns, communities, landscapes, lifestyles, and challenges. 

It’s this vastness that makes the multi-partnered, Regional Arts Triennial initiative just as big. Its vision is to strengthen art networks, build artistic and curatorial capacity, and give sustained visibility to regional artists and communities across the state. 

The Triennial Journey

As made clear in the title, it has a three-year cycle. It began in 2019 with the Alternate Archive which explored the idea that artists act as recorders of social history and are custodians of alternative local narratives. Artists were invited to engage with and reinterpret local archives or create new ones of little known and less told stories connected to identity, place, history, and community memory. The second iteration was Open Borders in 2020. It reflected on the impact and context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the concept of isolation: physically, psychologically, socially, and emotionally, and how it affected communities and artistic practice.

Radical Futures progresses the Triennial’s thematic evolution from the past and the present to turn its gaze forward and explore the role of the arts as a catalyst for change in times of uncertainty. It invites collective imagination, collaboration, critical reflection on the paths ahead, and imagining aspirational futures. This will complete the over-arching trajectory of beginning with the documenting and regathering historical, and regional cultural capital, to examining present-day challenges, and now imagining futures.

This third installation of the Regional Arts Triennial follows the previous models of creating a program of exhibitions, events, and performances in multiple locations across the state, all curated locally with place specific context, stories, challenges and aspirations. It will include more than 120 artists, 32 curators, over a dozen supporting local organisations and venues, and expected to access an audience in excess of 10 000+ people across regional and metro areas.

The schedule of events debuted in Carnarvon with Radical Futures: Solid Ground in August and was followed by Radical Futures: We Walk Together in Kununurra and Broome, and in Albany, Radical Futures: Fertile Ground. In each region, artists collaboratively engage with the Triennial’s themes and reimagine it in a context specific to their region. This new naming influences the shape and tone of their artworks, while keeping the over-arching framework front of mind. 

Goldfields Contribution: Nexus

The most recent exhibition to launch is the Goldfields’ contribution Radical Futures: Nexus, which opened December 14 from the Artgold Gallery and offices in Boulder.

Delivering on the Triennial’s vision of artist connection, sharing ideas, and learning from each other, Artgold was the facilitating organisation in the Goldfields. Clair Weir was appointed as the local Nexus curator and provided mentoring to the participating artists, who in turn received mentoring from the Radical Futures program in line with the goal of building skill capacity with artists, and arts workers. 

Artgold, like many regional arts bodies and organisations may be limited in resources and team, but as is a common trait in more remote areas, have an abundance of tenacity and creative problem-solving skills they use to consistently achieve amazing things in their communities, including support, sharing of knowledge, and a connections hub resource.  

The support team for this Exhibition included long-serving Chair, Melissa Drummond, and Organisation Coordinator, Juanita Kaye, a juggernaut extraordinaire. The team was further strengthened by the appointment of Carlie Pietersen as Gallery Coordinator, who brings a wealth of experience to the team from several years as Project Officer for Tjukurna Art Gallery in Wiluna, as well as her role coordinating of the annual Revealed Markets in Fremantle, WA’s largest Indigenous arts markets – which usually involved a roughly 24 hour driving round trip each year.

The Artists and Their Works

Nine artists were selected through the Expressions of Interest process and underwent a series of community engagements, community conversations, immersive bush trips, and workshops to create eight new artworks (artists Brent Johnston and Monika Dvorak collaborated on the painting Barna, balya mirrak kuka birni; the land provides good food for all) showcased in the exhibition. Other works included contemporary sculpture, textiles, photography, and mixed media from a combination of emerging and established artists with a diverse range of cultural background and experiences.

Brent is a Wati lawman and local Tjukurrpa (creation- dreaming) knowledge holder. His cultural heritage from his mother and father’s families includes Maduwongga and Nadju and Nanatadjara, Tjalkadjara and Martu. He has practiced art for most of his life and worked with Monika – a curator, artist, and cultural consultant – for over thirty years, and with the Bush Blossom Gallery since 2014. Their painting sees the ‘radical future’ of traditional bush tucker readily available in local supermarkets alongside current produce. 

Christine Shanahan’s painting, Organic Haulage, envisions a future where mining towns thrive in harmony with the environment and hopes it will inspire new eco-friendly innovations. Contemporary fibre and textile artists, Kelly Arcaro, calls for a return to the practice of traditional crafts that hold the wisdom of past cultures to reverse detachment from the physical world with her duo pieces, Crafted Future. Ena Pehilvanovic used photography to represent a return to noticing the land, respecting it, and allowing the land to reclaim its story with Signs of a Radical Future, and suggesting people listen to the land and be led by it. Linda Rae’s contemporary sculpture, Beyond Induction: The Infusion, is created from upcycled and scavenged materials with a technological element and suggests the future should seek out more genuine connections. Jacqueline Mills used her deeply felt connection to the Goldfields landscape to create a mixed media composition, and incorporated discarded items into her painting, Age of Renewal, showing how once useful objects that held purpose, now discarded, can be reclaimed by nature.

Goldfields-based, emerging Ngaanyatjarra and Gooniyandi artist, Azman Shaw, blended traditional and contemporary styles from his roots and family influences for Parna Kapi Karltara – Healing land and water, to represent modern concerns of land scarring and degradation, but also represent a new respect for use of land and the ancestral spirits that guard them, finding a nexus between industries and this respect. Ngapatji Ngapatji: Plenty for everyone, you help me and I help you, and no one is left out, is the message behind Lundy Carol Thompson’s painting and chair installation. Carol is a self-taught Wangkatja Mirning artist, and sees a ‘Nexus’ between housing, food, and people. “Where basic needs are met, we can reach our potential.” 

Over nine months Artgold and Claire Weir worked with the artists to support their exploration of the project’s themes and led conversations around how those themes related to the Goldfields. What were the greatest worries/challenges/ fears/ hardships? What might the future look like without them? How might we envision or work together to create solutions to these issues? 

Strengthening Creative Connections

For Artgold’s, supporting the exhibition reflects its ongoing commitment to supporting artists through connection, professional development, and meaningful opportunities to engage beyond the region. By contributing to the Triennial initiative, Artgold is continuing to help facilitate pathways for local practice to be developed, contextualised, and presented within a wider statewide framework.

“Our involvement in projects like these is a key part of Artgold’s commitment to strengthening and celebrating the creative life of the Goldfields…. The scale of Radical Futures allows our region’s artists and stories to take their place within Western Australia’s broader cultural landscape, ensuring the perspectives and creativity of the Goldfields are visible, valued, and shared,” Artgold Chair, Melissa Drummond. 

“We’re normally so isolated, but this is part of a much bigger event, and the artists can benefit from the connections and visibility that comes from that. It’s not every exhibition that gives artists the time and space to brainstorm and inspire each other, and that makes Radical Futures a little bit unique and a great experience for everyone involved.” Artgold Gallery Coordinator, Carlie Pieterson.

“As we explored the overarching themes together each artist contributed a unique perspective, bridging memory and innovation, cultural knowledge and creative experimentation, personal narrative and collective possibility. The works challenges us to imagine what comes next, and to recognise the threads that connect us in the present. The curiosity, openness, and courage of the participating artists have guided the direction of this project, influencing not just the artworks themselves but the dialogues, stories, and shared moments that give NEXUS its heartbeat.” Clair Weir, Nexus Curator.

Looking Ahead – Goldfields to Statewide Stage

A Triennial judging panel will select artworks from each of the 15 regional exhibitions and events for a metro showcase at John Curtin Gallery in September 2026, followed by a state-wide 2027-2029 regional tour.

The WA Regional Arts Triennial 3: Radical Futures is funded with support from the WA Government and is coordinated by Southern Forest Arts with support from ART ON THE MOVE through the Regional Exhibition Touring Boost. Project partners include John Curtin Gallery, Regional Arts WA, GalleriesWest and Kimberley Arts Network and local peak bodies in contributing communities.

More information and full schedule of events can be found at: Regionalartstriennial.com.au