Walking into the Southwest

Olivia Hickey

Exhibition Dates:
Thursday 11 June – Monday 22 June, 2026
10:00am – 4:00pm daily

Opening Event:
Thursday 11 June, 2026
5:20pm – 7:30pm
Facebook Event Page

An exhibition of jewellery and photography captured whilst walking into the wilds of the Southwest of Tasmania and the South West of Western Australia

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Artist Statement

This exhibition brings together years of walking through remote landscapes including six years working as a Wilderness Ranger in the Southwest of Tasmania and a 56-day, 1,000-kilometre journey along the Bibbulmun Track from Perth to Albany in 2025.

Walking for me is a meditation, a mindful observation of the land around me and what is underneath my feet. With each step I enter into a deeper relationship with place. The longer I walk the more I become of that landscape- the water in my body slowly replaced by the water I drink along the way.

Living and working in the Southwest of Tasmania, carrying a pack, and returning to the same areas season after season, year after year has allowed me to witness intimate details of the mountains, the forests, the rivers and the plains. The landscape holds stories of ancient Gondwanan lineages, and plants and communities found nowhere else on Earth

Along the Bibbulmun Track I moved through eight distinct biomes within an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot, encountering extraordinary diversity and adaptation as the track wove through forest, coast, heath, wetland and granite outcrops. I walked wide eyes in awe as its was so different to Tasmania and I only touched the surface of this landscape, there is so much more to learn.

I am drawn repeatedly to plants — their resilience, specificity and quiet presence. Naming them does not reduce the landscape to a checklist; each carries evolutionary history and ecological relationship. Over time I begin to recognise species as one recognises a friend’s face, revealing not just identity but a network of belonging.

The jewellery and photography in this exhibition emerge from this slow, attentive practice. Photography documents species and landscapes at particular moments in time. Jewellery, created through moulds taken directly from plants, becomes a tactile act of homage — a way of holding place close to the body and creating a lasting record.

These ecosystems, though ancient, are vulnerable. A warming and drying climate, altered fire regimes, mining and increasing human pressures threaten their delicate balance.

This body of work is both celebration and witness. It honours the intricate, place-specific worlds that exist beneath our feet, whilst acknowledging the vulnerability of place. I invite you to not just focus on getting to the top of the mountain, to the next campsite or complete your journey but to slow down, look closely and remain curious. There is so much to discover.