I acknowledge and pay respect to custodians – past present and emerging – on sovereign Dharawal Wodi Wodi land where I live and conduct this creative practice. I extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. As a beneficiary of a colonial continuum and the resulting disproportionate distribution of wealth across this continent – I Pay the Rent – and invite you to do so too.

Bianca Hester

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Bianca Hester’s practice explores entanglements of materiality, place and the forces of ecological change across timescales, producing expansive artworks that cultivate new modes of attentive and relational embodiment amid the pressures of climate crisis.


Recent work investigates interconnections between colonial inheritance, extraction, environmental crisis, evolution and extinction across the Australian continent. Employing relational, embodied and situational methodologies – she combines experimental fieldwork, engaging the geologic record (in archives and in situ), site-writing, sculptural production, collaboration and performed actions – to develop projects that unpack the material conditions of specific places. This results in an expansive form of public art unfolding in dialogue with a range of interlocutors and participants.

Bianca Hester’s practice explores entanglements of materiality, place and the forces of ecological change across timescales, producing expansive artworks that cultivate new modes of attentive and relational embodiment amid the pressures of climate crisis.


Recent work investigates interconnections between colonial inheritance, extraction, environmental crisis, evolution and extinction across the Australian continent. Employing relational, embodied and situational methodologies – she combines experimental fieldwork, engaging the geologic record (in archives and in situ), site-writing, sculptural production, collaboration and performed actions – to develop projects that unpack the material conditions of specific places. This results in an expansive form of public art unfolding in dialogue with a range of interlocutors and participants.

Bianca is an artist, writer and educator who has exhibited widely within Australia and internationally. She is a continuing member of the collaborative trio Open Spatial Workshop (2003–ongoing with Terri Bird and Scott Mitchell), a founding member of CLUBSproject inc (2002–07) and a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow (2016). Her project A world, fully accessible by no living being (2011) won the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture. She is currently an Associate Professor and is the discipline lead for Sculpture in the School of Art and Design at UNSW Sydney, where she was the former Co-Director of Research and Engagement between 2021–2024. Her active memberships include: The Climate Aware Creative Practices Network, and the Editorial Committee for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art (AANZJA). She was a former Associate Investigator within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) between 2021-2025. She is represented by Sarah Scout Presents in Melbourne. Bianca’s work is held in public and private collections. For a complete CV of creative and published works and professional engagement, visit her UNSW academic profile.

Collaboration has been a key part of practice over the last two decades and includes the following initiatives:
Open Spatial Workshop (2003 - ongoing)
Down City Streets (2014 - 2018)
The West Brunswick Sculpture Triennial (2009)
CLUBSProject Inc. artist run initiative (2002 - 2007)
Artery Co-Operative
The Working Group (2014).

Anthropogenic, Archive, Basalt, Brick, Bronze, Colonial continuums, Coal, Concrete, Cosmic, Deep time, Digging, Dirt, Dust, Embodiment, Extractivism, Extinctions, Floor, Fossil, Fragment, Geologies, Groundwork, Installation, Materiality, Object, People, Performance, Permian, Place, Plant life, Process, Meteorite, Moving, Moving image, Rubbings, Sandstone, Sculpture, Singular objects, Site, Sociality, Steel, Still image, Textual, Triassic, Walking, Wall.