Robyn Glade-Wright

About the artist

Robyn Glade-Wright is a practising contemporary artist who has presented over 40 solo exhibitions in public and private galleries.

Glade-Wright was awarded a PhD in 2006 for environmental art research project tilted Making Nature: Extinct Tasmanian Plants. Glade-Wright has published articles in peer-reviewed journals regarding aesthetic, ethics, environmental art and practice-led research.

Her works of art call attention to the role humans have played in climate change, environmental pollution and species loss. Beauty is used subversively in many of her creative works to gain attention and engender reflection. Lurking behind her use of beauty lies a haunting message, goading us into action to preserve the diversity of the natural environment and the life forms that are dependent on these environments.

Glade-Wright has been living and working in Cairns for the past eight years. She is an Associate Professor of Art at James cook University. In 2016, Glade-Wright presented a solo Exhibition Red Tide at the Cairns Regional Gallery. Works of art in this exhibition addressed the concerns and looming impacts of the Anthropocene. The works were constructed from marine pollution. The exhibition gained print and television reviews. 

In 2017, Glade-Wright exhibited in outdoor environments, aligning habitat denigration and the demise of living entities in her creative research. In 2018, Glade-Wright installed a large-scale piece on the exterior of the Cairns Institute building at James Cook University. This work, Microplastics Found in Human Embryo, was created from 1000 recycled plastic bottles and indicates a formative progression in Glade-Wright’s creative practice.

Artwork

Inflated, 2018 
Sculpture; wire, rope and floats washed up on Far North Queensland beaches, solar lights

Created from 300 discarded floats from fishing nets and ropes that were collected by volunteers on the beaches of Far North Queensland, Inflated suggests that our once pristine beaches and oceans are now polluted and highlights the impact this pollution is having on marine life, in particular, the effect of plastic pollution on sea turtles. 

When turtles eat plastic, they produce gas in an effort to digest it. As this gas builds up, it prevents the turtles from being able to dive for food. Then, forced to float on the surface of the water, they bake in the sun before tragically dying.

While the piece has a sanguine message about the pollution of our oceans and coastlines, there is a link to a positive story about local action as the floats were collected by members of the Tangaroa Blue Foundation. This is local not for profit environmental group whose efforts demonstrate that people are working together to make a difference.

Located at the entrance