with, together:greens & browns - Shelley Watters,Emily Simek
From City of Sydney · Last checked 14 Nov. That's our last look, not a live ticket check.
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The lowdown
The foundation of the project is informed by each artists’ established processes in composting as part of their experimental art practices. The title “with, together” is drawn from the etymology of the prefix “com-”; which appears frequently in daily use; compost, commune, communicating, computing, combining, companionship, and compassion.
Approaching collaboration as an invitation for action, the artists “dig into each other’s compost piles” so to speak, where the term “pile” refers both to the literal compost piles in their gardens, and the sharing of archival work, materials, skills and technologies within their respective art practices.
Living apart and unable to meet together in their physical gardens, the artists ask the question of how to compost together at a distance. This unfolded over months of weekly online calls and messages, through a co-mingling of art practice, friendship and skills exchange, alongside embedding of technologies such as endoscopic cameras and flat-bed scanners within the garden ecology.
with, together: greens and browns culminates in a joint studio residency and work-in-progress showing at Invisible Art Space, where “greens and browns” is the ephemera that has emerged from a nutrient rich layering of distinctive practices.
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Shelley Watters (Gadigal and Wangal/Sydney)(she/they) is an artist and curator who resides and creates on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples. Their practice is driven by an expansive, action-led approach that often invites community participation. They work fluidly across installation, photo media, textiles, sound and video to investigate entanglement and repair.
Their work has been included in group shows at Chrissie Cotter Gallery, George Paton Gallery, Verge Gallery and Articulate Project Space. In 2026, they were artist-in-residence at Carss Bush Park Artist Cottage, supported by Georges River Council. They hold a BVA from Sydney College of the Arts and a Permaculture Design Certificate from CERES, Brunswick. Watters is a late-diagnosed autistic person and late-blooming artist. Their career in marketing and communications spans more than 20 years with roles in the arts and non-profit sectors.
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Emily Simek (Naarm/Melbourne)(she/her) has a relational, interspecies approach to her art practice which comprises textiles, digital art, writing, gardening and social practice. Informed by methodologies in composting, and grounded by a commitment to group processes, she develops her work through participation in food webs, local networks of exchange, and collective gardening. She lives and works on Wurundjeri Country, Victoria.
Ongoing collective projects include ‘co-worm-ing’ with Grey Dear, Joy Zhou, and a mobile worm farm (2023–), gardening with Patch-Work (2023–), and providing tech support for WORLDWIDEWORMS.NET (2024–), an online space for publishing of draft, in-progress or adjacent creative work.
Simek’s recent exhibitions include Wangaratta Art Gallery, KINGS Artist-Run, Composite Moving Image Agency, MARS Gallery, and Blindside ARI. She is a recipient of the Noel Counihan Commemorative Art Award and VCA50 Creative Development Grant, and has untaken residencies with Next Wave, City of Melbourne and Centre of Visual Art.
Where to rock up
Buchanan St, Balmain, Sydney
