Reading Entangled Environments Residency | Caroline Austin and Dr. Natasha Narain
27 January - 9 February 2026
We hosted artists Caroline Austin and Dr. Natasha Narain at Project_Space for a two week collaborative residency that began on the 27th, where they undertook research, reading and writing by engaging with our collection at the Reading Room library. They also responded to the site around FICA from which artistic outcomes emerged in the form of photographic, annotative, textile and canvas installations around the space.
Their ongoing enquiries examine more-than-human perspectives of plants, birds, and animals, exploring the links between mythology, migration, and material histories through an interdisciplinary, community-engaged, and collaborative creative practice. Conceived as a nurturing space for gathering stories, they hosted an Open Studio between 3 - 5 February where they invited young people, artists, academics as well as the local community to participate in scroll-making and readings, exchanging personal narratives around textile and the meanings and relationships developed around them in our everyday lives.
Presentation | Reading Entangled Environments
On the 29th, Dr. Natasha delivered a presentation on Kantha textile traditions, exploring 19th-century material histories, contemporary practice, and interdisciplinary approaches, underscoring the importance of research methods where the agency of the practitioner as a witness, narrator and artist, are continually acknowledged. She drew our attention towards the potent imagery of entangled environments present within kantha iconography, focusing on geometry, patterns, repetition and the cyclical and rotational perspective that underpins the kantha tradition. She walked us through how these gestures are abstracted in her own works across mediums that include canvas and glass which she overlays with appliqué and text, playing with scale and experimenting with different display formats.
Caroline led a discussion on her book and writings around more-than-human perspectives and personal myths, which included Sintezo—a magazine conceived as an anti-disciplinary body of writing that invites artists, designers and writers to contribute and is published every quarter. She also introduced us to her background in policy work around climate change which informs her artistic practice, addressing questions around how individuals and collectives can mobilise agency in tackling climate change. Caroline emphasised her interest in investigating idyllic representations of nature in photography, using image distortion, games and strategy as artistic interventions to disrupt ideas of nature as separate from us.
About the residents:
Natasha Narain is a Bengali Australian artist, scholar, and educator based in Meanjin-Brisbane, exploring the interrelationships between handcrafted textiles, domestic objects, ecology, and gendered social history across South Asia, Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America.
Caroline Austin is an artist and writer. Born in Rockhampton, Caroline has spent much of her adult life in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand. Having trained across law, business and arts, her interdisciplinary participative practice speaks to a love of collaboration.
