Ngaio Fitzpatrick is a 2016 recipient of an ANU Vice Chancellors Artists Fellowship (VCCAFS) working in partnership with the ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions. The joint project looks at ways of using art to communicate complex issues surrounding climate change. She recently completed an Honours degree with the ANU College of Art and Social Sciences in Glass. Ngaio has a previous background in environmentally sustainable architecture and building which informs her arts practice. She is particularly interested in the intersection of science, art and politics and how to best to represent these often very different viewpoints in relationship to changing climate.

Ngaio’s arts practice encompasses performance, imagery and site specific installations to draw attention to issues surrounding dangerous climate change. Her recent works utilise video, photography, light and industrial glass to express these concerns. A recent video work was situated in Canberra Glassworks, a remnant industrial coal fired power plant. Sheets of industrial glass, representing human progress and industrialization were used with coal, and steam speaking of the increased speed, growth and pressure exerted on Earth systems. She uses the sound and imagery of shattering glass to draw the viewer in, poetically rather than explicitly, to question human complicity and speak of the pressing need for change. The VCCAFS presents a unique opportunity to work within an interdisciplinary partnership exchanging research, ideas and methodologies.

Ngaio Fitzpatrick

Visiting Fellow, ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions