Event Steve Kemp and Pete Shields

Steve Kemp and Pete Shields

In Conversation

1 June 2019
1–3pm

Join traditional plant specialist Steve Kemp (Ghungalu peoples) and landscape designer Pete Shields as they discuss the properties, histories, and significance of various plants in a variety of Australian contexts.

Kemp is a traditional plant specialist from Woorabinda in Central Queensland. He continues the legacy that his father Tim Kemp created as a noted Ghungalu plants specialist, with his expertise in their traditional uses and in medicine.

Shields has extensive experience transforming domestic and public spaces with plants, including for the IMA’s courtyard sculpture garden Corps à Corps. Shields recently created an indoor hydroponic set up in Christopher Kulendran Thomas’s exhibition New Eelam: Brisbane, on display now at the IMA, which features edible species endemic to Australia, such as Warrigal greens.

Join Kemp and Shields as they discuss the cultivation, care and uses for local plant species through their own experiences and perspectives.

 

Guest Info
  • Steve Kemp

    Steve Kemp (Ghungalu) is the former mayor Woorabinda. He is currently finalising a primary school language program for Woorabinda, in which he has developed a full curriculum for each year level. Kemp recently discussed his extensive plant knowledge at the IMA in conversation with Dale Harding.

    Pete Shields

    Pete ‘The Plant Man’ Shields is a landscape designer who has extensive experience transforming domestic and public spaces with plants. He recently collaborated with artists on a number of projects at the IMA including the IMA’s courtyard sculpture garden, Corps à Corps, which brings together local forest and coastal plants, and Christopher Kulendran Thomas’s exhibition New Eelam: Brisbane.

Image courtesy of Dale Harding

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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