By Biennale of Sydney
22nd Biennale of Sydney
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
Mineral Garden is a collaborative project created by artists Randy Lee Cutler and Andrew Rewald at the National Art School, Sydney.
About the artists
Randy Lee Cutler
Born 1964 in Montreal, Canada
Lives and works in Vancouver, Canada
Working across disciplines, Randy Lee Cutler’s practice explores the presence of minerals in our daily environments and their profound but often unacknowledged effect on our experiences. Taking the form of participatory performance walks, collage, installation, audiovisual works and critical/creative writing, Cutler shows how minerals work as the invisible building blocks of our bodies and technologies.
Andrew Rewald
Born 1969 in Murgon, Australia
Lives and works in Northern Rivers, Australia and Berlin, Germany
Andrew Rewald is a transdisiciplinary artist who uses plants as the medium and subject matter in his work. He invites audiences to participate and experience interconnections between food and ecologs working collaboratively with community groups, artists and professionals from other disciplines.
Randy Lee Cutler & Andrew Rewald, 'Mineral Garden' | 22nd Biennale of Sydney | NIRIN (2020) by Randy Lee Cutler and Andrew RewaldBiennale of Sydney
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
Mineral Garden
This collaborative installation draws on the individual practices of Randy Lee Cutler and Andrew Rewald. The artists met through an introduction by NIRIN Artistic Director, Brook Andrew and formed a collaboration based on their common interest in the natural world and ecological crises.
Mineral Garden Mineral Garden (2020) by Randy Lee Cutler and Andrew RewaldBiennale of Sydney
In Mineral Garden they create a portal into the hyper-terrestrial, presenting non-linear hybridised narratives and connections.
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
Through a diverse selection of materials: collages, posters, archival objects from public and private collections, mineral and plant specimens, and a reading area.
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
The installation traverses the realms of mysticism, museum taxonomy, science fiction and reality.
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
"How might we make space for emergent worlds and lifeforms? What would an alternative spacetime of hyper terrestriality look like where everyone and everything is exceptional… where human exceptionalism is no longer operative?"
- Randy Lee Cutler
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
A reading area supports the project with significant books that have inspired the collaboration.
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
Mineral Garden includes the audio work ‘Rock Album’ by Randy Lee Cutler - a sound work exploring deep time, mineral extraction and medicine.
Listen to the complete playlist of sound works here.
Tap to explore
Navigate through the National Art School galleries and discover the objects of installation work, Mineral Garden.
Mineral Garden Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
Keep exploring...
Listen to Randy Lee Cutler and Andrew Rewald discuss their NIRIN collaboration Mineral Garden in this edition of Artist Insider by the National Art School or view Andrew Rewald's installation, Alchemy Garden.
Mineral Garden, 2019-20
mixed-media installation (collage, posters and audio work by Randy Lee Cutler; drawings, foraged plant materials and objects by Andrew Rewald; archival artifacts on loan from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences collection; mineral collection on loan from Christine Myerscough), dimensions variable
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney
Courtesy the artists; Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney; and Christine Myerscough