Leaves: Eco-Anxiety
Amidst ecological polycrisis, what practical, cultural or mystical remedies are possible?
Adelaide Contemporary Experimental
11 September to 5 December 2026
These works offer different ways into this question: A yarning circle creates space for conversations about Country, care and cultivating native species. Eucalyptus leaves frame and scent the gallery. A temple offers a place for quiet retreat and tea-drinking. Other works turn to ecological restoration, performance, ritual, magic and noise as ways of responding to environmental anxiety and grief.
Living with ecological crises has become a part of everyday life. Climate change, habitat loss and environmental degradation bring with them anxiety and grief about what is happening to the natural world, and uncertainty about what comes next.
Leaves: Eco-Anxiety brings together seven artists whose artworks respond to these feelings sympathetically and remedially. Across the exhibition, caring for Country and planting native habitat sit alongside contemplation, restoration, divination and drinking tea. Together, in different ways, they consider how we might care for the natural world while living with the knowledge of its increasing precarity.
Feature Image: Emiko Artemis (2026) Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Andre Castellucci.
Artists
ACE is supported by the South Australian Government through Create SA and the Australian Government through Creative Australia.
Stephanie Doddridge is supported by Create SA and Bio·R and has also been supported by the Porter Street Fund.
Bryce Cawte is supported by City of Adelaide and has also been supported through a Carclew Fellowship.
The performance program is supported by City of Adelaide.
