Reflective Motives: Reader
“We publish from the margins in. Inclusive of all the scuffs, crossouts, sidenotes and weathering. It’s not perfect or linear, but it is thoughtful (emphasis on the ‘full’) and relational. We cherish the mistakes and learn from them. In the face of artificial… we hold each other and a sense of humour.”
—Marilena Hewitt, 2026
Accompany Marilena Hewitt in a collective publishing experiment, creating a live response to Reflective Motives. Here, publishing is a relational act, an act of care, listening, tending and testing. It’s a process of learning together, from and with the Lands on which we gather, communing with critters, and calling for justice with our whole bodies. Through chatting, stamping, drawing, and reflecting, a publication will emerge across the two days of Reflective Motives, to be distributed over dinner on the final evening.
Reader is an open, drop in session taking place in Room 271 of the Global Change Institute on Thursday 12 November 2:30-4:30 and Friday 13 November 9:30-12:30.
Image credit: Marilena Hewitt
About Reflective Motives: Two Days with the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network and UQ Art Museum
Reflective Motives is a two-day gathering hosted by UQ Art Museum in collaboration with the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network (CACP). The program is made up of four artist-led workshops facilitated by invited artists and researchers: Dominique Chen, Caitlin Franzmann, Libby Harward, Bianca Hester, Eugenia Lim, Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, Lleah Smith and collaborators to be announced. The keynote conversation will take place between Dr. Aunty Mary Graham and Tristen Harwood. Alongside shared meals, walks and screenings, Marilena Hewitt will collaborate with attendees and facilitators to create a responsive Reflective Motives reader, collating conversations, workshop notes, reflections and printing experiments, in a live publication to be distributed at the event’s close.
Reflective Motives brings together artists, researchers, educators and curators for two days of practice-led climate thinking. Drawing on Dr. Aunty Mary Graham’s articulation of ‘the reflective motive’ as mode of understanding and practicing relationality, this gathering offers strategies for responding to a socially and environmentally changed climate in the context of contemporary art. Reflective Motives is an invitation to engage with artists working with place, Country, matter and language. Alongside hosted workshops and talks, a breakout space will provide room for unprogrammed conversations, sharing, meals, and exchanges, as well as a platform for attendees to self-organise their own creative and collective contributions to the event.
Community Picnic Blanket Exchange
As part of Reflective Motives attendees are invited to participate in a community picnic blanket exchange. Get stitching/weaving/patching/printing! In your studio, with friends, collaborators, community groups, or in classrooms, you are invited to create a picnic blanket to bring, use and swap.
Please register to stay up to date, including further details for session registration as some parts of this program will have limited capacity.
Reflective Motives is organised by Therese Keogh and Jacqueline Chlanda with Helen Hughes, Tara McDowell and Terri Bird from the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network
Reflective Motives is hosted by UQ Art Museum in partnership with the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network and is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by Monash Art Design and Architecture.
