Artist Statement

Exhibition. Le Cube Garges, April 27 – May 18 and Southern Winter Exhibitions 2023 at Hangars Numériques, May 16 – 21  then August 1 – 15 

2022
Interactive installation

Vegetal/digital is presented as a digital and poetic attempt at digital reconstruction of Australian flora. Engaging in ‘critical plant thinking’, a concept of studies aimed at promoting a symbiotic and sensitive relationship with plants, artist Alison Bennett has recreated endangered Australian native flowers as 3D point clouds with which visitors can interact using a motion capture device. In this way, Alison Bennett establishes technique and technology as vectors of increased sensitivity to non-human elements with which we sometimes coexist without much consideration. By taking us into the slow and sublime time of the plant world, Alison Bennett’s work invites us to consider and value the plant heritage of the world for which we are responsible. By taking us into the slow and sublime time of the plant world, Alison Bennett’s work invites us to consider and value the plant heritage of the world for which we are responsible.

• Alison Bennett is based in Melbourne, Australia. My broader practice is situated in ‘expanded photography’ where the boundaries have shifted in the transition to digital media and become diffused into ubiquitous computing. Creative projects have tested the creative and discursive potentials of augmented reality, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, point clouds, virtual reality and webXR as encompassed by the medium and practice of photography. As a neuroqueer new-media artist, I have explored the performance and technology of gender identity and considered the convergence of biological and digital skin as virtual prosthesis. Tertiary qualifications: Creative practice research PhD 2017, Deakin University Motion Lab; Master of Fine Art by research 2009, Monash University; Graduate Diploma (Information Management) 1993 RMIT; Graduate Diploma (Cultural Heritage Management) 1991, University of Canberra; Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) 1989, UNSW College of Fine Arts. https://alisonbennett.net