Alice Blackwood & Maddi Obi
Alice Blackwood is a poet and performer, based in Bathurst (Wiradyuri Land). They are drawn to themes of plant-people relationships, social justice, and community. In 2020 they developed a solo show ‘In Breath’, a poetic performance for plants and their people; other performance highlights include NSW poetry slam finals, environmental conferences, and many a campfire. Maddi Obi is an artist and designer based on Dabee, Wiradjuri Land in Kandos. Her work is deeply rooted in nature, exploring the connections between local plants, ecological cycles, and our shared environment. Through sculpture, bricolage and printmaking, she creates art that fosters curiosity and a sense of stewardship for the natural world. Together, they bring their individual creative practices into conversation: Maddi’s tangible forms of bricolage, printing and installation, with Alice’s poetic and performative. Underlying this is a shared commitment to deep listening to more-than-human intelligences, curiosity, playfulness, and obsession with plants.
Understory Offerings is an act of reverence and gratitude to plants. In developing the work, the artists endeavoured to slow down their senses, sitting under and inside trees, “bowerbirding” with their minds and bodies. Obi and Blackwood have collected treasures from the remnant woodlands of Kandos, alongside words from their favourite plant-thinkers. Come and join their “prayer for the Planthroposcene”.
