Regional Arts WA is proud to unveil our dynamic new motion graphic “Where the Land Speaks. Art Listens”, a visual celebration of Western Australia’s diverse landscapes and artistic expression.

We initially ideated this project to transform our updated website’s homepage into an immersive experience that captures the essence of our state. By bringing together 11 artists from across Western Australia’s nine regions, we’ve created a moving, abstract representation that intertwines the stories of our land, cultures, and communities.

The Visual Result

The collaborative artwork highlights the interconnectedness between regional artists and Western Australia’s varying landscapes. The artists’ works are each shaped by their daily interactions with WA’s regional environment, and visually document the places they call home.

In the Great Southern, Seirah Woodward’s artwork portrays the regeneration of trees after bushfires, illustrating nature’s remarkable resilience and renewal. In the South West, Kate Debbo’s horses gallop across the canvas, capturing the region’s agricultural heritage, while Leon Pericles’ fish swim through waters that define the region’s coastal identity.

The Mid West comes alive through Helen Ansell’s, and Kevin Merritt’s wildflowers – an explosion of colour that speaks to the spectacular blooms that carpet the region after rainfall. These endemic wildflower wonders represent the resilience of life in sometimes harsh conditions.

From the Wheatbelt’s undulating farmlands to the Kimberley’s dramatic contrasts of wet and dry seasons, the landscape’s biodiversity finds expression through the artists’ work. Michelle Kickett’s sinuous snake and Raymond Edney’s pink and grey galahs depict the living ecosystem that defines Western Australia’s fauna.

Together, the artworks form an environmental story too, a visual testimony to the complex interdependence between place, culture, and creative expression across our 60,000 year old living state.

A Collaborative Vision

This project is a statement about the power of collaboration across our state’s vast distances. In a land as expansive as Western Australia, artistic communities can sometimes feel isolated, but this project bridges those distances through shared creativity.

The complete motion graphic runs just over a minute without artist credits and will be featured in segments on our homepage throughout the year. We will also display the graphic as a projection (with artist credits) over NAIDOC week with an event coordinated with the City of Bunbury and the Creative Tech Village to showcase and celebrate the motion design publicly.

Diverse Voices

We’re particularly proud that this project includes three First Nations artists whose work brings important cultural perspectives to the collective piece. The featured First Nations artists include Kevin Merrit, a senior Wajarri Yamatji man and Director of both the local Aboriginal radio station and Mara Arts Aboriginal Corporation; Michelle Kickett, a Noongar woman from Ballardong and Whadjuk Country whose intricate paintings depict significant Dreamtime stories and aspects of Aboriginal culture; and Raymond Edney, a Yinggarda man renowned for delivering On Country Cultural Awareness Training to allied health, nursing, and pharmacy students in Carnarvon.

The diverse cultural backgrounds of our contributing artists extends further with Rani Fankha who is of Swiss and Sri Lankan heritage, Deborah Zibah sharing artistic influences from Zimbabwe, Kate Debbo who grew up in South Africa’s multicultural society, Jacky Cheng who is second generation Malaysian Chinese, Leon Pericles of Greek and Irish decent, and Seirah Woodward – whose family arrived as convicts from the UK in 1802. Pilbara based Sarah Green is British-born and has lived in Australia for 17 years, and Helen Ansell’s unique experience of growing up in Ululla – a remote Aboriginal community in central WA has helped shaped her art.

Together, these artists reflect the authentic multicultural communities that make Western Australia’s arts scene so vibrant and collectively interpret the regional landscapes they now call home.

The Artists

We extend our sincere thanks to all the artists who contributed to this project. Through your creative visions, a collective piece about Western Australia’s landscapes has been compiled that speaks to us in a language that transcends words. 

South West: Leon Pericles and Kate Debbo

Pilbara: Sarah Green

Wheatbelt: Michelle Kickett

Great Southern: Seirah Woodward

Goldfields-Esperance: Rani Fankha

Kimberley: Jacky Cheng

Peel: Deborah Zibah

Mid West: Kevin Merritt and Helen Ansell

Gascoyne: Raymond Edney

Watch the Motion Graphic

Motion Graphic produced by Margaret River based digital agency Hey Liminal.