Paradoxa Collective comprises four contemporary artists: Penelope Aitken, Anna Farago, Siri Hayes and Susan Wirth. Based on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country in the outer north east of Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, they share an interest in peri-urban landscapes, connecting to the land through practical restoration and regeneration activities combined with site-informed art making. In their art practices they work across a range of media, from photography, textiles, painting, sound and video, and often use natural and found materials to create works that reflect on connections between places and people.

Formed in 2015, the artists in Paradoxa Collective have shown together in A Crafted History: People and Place, curated by Lisa Byrne and Jane O’Neill at ArtSpace Realm and in 2016 formed the ongoing Friends of Bunjil Reserve Food, Fibre and Medicine Garden. During 2019 and 2020 Paradoxa organised Walking, Talking, Listening, Learning - a series of six guided walking talks in Bunjil Reserve, Panton Hill. In early 2021 the Collective exhibited work generated from these walks in Satellite of Love - Perspectives from Bunjil Reserve at the Eltham Library and then in Bark, leaves, soil, berries: conversations on place, at Art Gallery 275, Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub in April-May 2021. In 2022 and 2023 Paradoxa continues to work at Bunjil Reserve with a series of activities called Under the Canopy; Making and Shaping, and producing a major public art commission, Tread Lightly in memory of Wurundjeri Elder, Aunty Judy Nicholson.

Paradoxa Collective acknowledges and pays respect to the Wurundjeri Traditional Owners and Elders, past, present and emerging, of the country in which we live and work.

⬇