Animal Encounter Fairfield

Join Derek Cook and artist Kathy Holowko For a sunrise or sunset paddle. This event is offered as an extension to Booked out events for Reimaginging Birrarung: Design Concepts for 2070.

Kathy Holowko is a visual artist that creates sculptural works, installations, public art and playful projects in a variety of media. She is interested in the effects that urban life has upon our understanding of ecology and in busy, human centric environments, she search for narratives and connections that can help us reconsider our world as a cyclical, and shared habitat. She does this on her own, and in collaboration with artists, museums, ecologists, rangers, wild life carers, scientists, industry and other humans of all scales. Kathy believes in the power of art to help learn, to think, to meditate … and it is her way to mirror cultural environmental ideologies in the hope of building positive future visions.

Kathy has honoured the worm on a plinth in the Edinburgh Gardens, invited a hundreds of fruit bat sculptures into the atrium of Fed Sq, illuminated the Herbarium with botanical lanterns, and creates Wild Cities with children where they consider wild animals as citizens in urban spaces…amongst other things.

The canoe tour will be led by Derek Cook of social enterprise Up the Creek. This unique event offers a firsthand exploration of the Birrarung over a 4km stretch between Studley Park Boat House and Fairfield Boat House at dusk and dawn.
As you paddle along the river, taking in the fresh air and green surrounds, your guides will provide insights into the environmental, cultural, and social significance of the river, highlighting its historical importance to Indigenous communities and its evolving role in the urban landscape.
The tour will connect past, present, and future, offering a comprehensive understanding of the river’s journey and the imagined outcomes as seen in the exhibition..
Fitness level: Easy-moderate