Q&A with Jaqui Malins
Meet Jaqui! The speaker at this month’s Impact Hour
You're our next Impact Hour speaker, where you'll be exploring the relationship between art and activism. Can you give us a sneak peek at what people can expect, and why this is a conversation we need right now?
As someone concerned about the ecological and humanitarian threats and harms we are grappling with globally, I have feared that making art is a fluffy, inconsequential thing. But I've learned some things over the past couple of years that have shifted my perspective about this, and I am looking forward to sharing and discussing my ideas about how art and activism can support one another in different ways, or be the same thing.
Your work spans poetry, sculpture, performance, photography, video and installation. Do you have a favourite medium, or does each new idea tell you how it wants to be expressed?
In childhood, I graduated from mud pies to pottery quite early! Clay was my main medium for many years. But when I discovered poetry, about a decade ago now, it changed how I worked as an artist too, and now my materials and techniques emerge from the ideas I am exploring. Most recently, I've been working with machine embroidery, cyanotype, and experimental drawing using watercolour and ice.
Many people care deeply about climate change and biodiversity loss but feel overwhelmed or unsure how to respond. What role can creativity play in helping people move from despair to hope, curiosity or action?
I think art can play lots of different roles. It can support the motivation and wellbeing of activists, it can raise awareness and educate, it can communicate in ways that connect emotionally as well as intellectually, it can get people's attention, it can imagine different futures, it can be a solution. I'll explore some of these roles, and my own questions and uncertainties and how I've answered them, during Impact Hour.
What's one nature space/spot in Canberra that never fails to inspire you, or just relax you!?
I live near Mount Majura, and have been walking and running there for more than twenty years. I feel so lucky to be so close to this bushland, and to enjoy its beauty and observe its resilience across the years.
If you could encourage everyone in Canberra to do one small creative thing outdoors this weekend, what would it be?
I encourage you to interact with the environment through a tiny experiment. Think 'What might happen if....?' Then take that tiny action, and really observe (with all your senses) the result. The kind of thing you might have tried as a child: What if I pulled this dew-laden twig back and released it? If I dropped a blade of grass onto this puddle? Brushed this feather back the wrong way? Looked under this rock? Pulled back one piece of this bark and looked underneath? Interact with curiosity and really observe what happens. Even tiny actions can have more impact than we appreciate. And of course - leave things as you found them afterwards.
If you would like to hear more about Jaqui’s work and beliefs, purchase tickets to Impact hour HERE