Blue Realm

Next date: Monday, 29 September 2025 | 09:00 AM to Sunday, 16 November 2025 | 05:00 PM

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Blue Realm (detail) 2025. Credit: Carolyn Cardinet 

A series of sculptural works crafted entirely from found blue hay baling twine — a single-use polypropylene material that has replaced natural fibres in the name of convenience and durability. Through varied techniques of weaving, stitching and assemblage the recycled plastic is transformed into organic, floating and resilient forms. 

Blue Realm invites viewers into a suspended world where this overlooked plastic thread is reimagined as a conduit for reflection on consumption, transformation and our entwined relationship with the environment. These works are not only sculptural explorations but ecological meditations — monuments to what remains, what is discarded and what might be saved and be renewed. 

Each work emerges from a tactile dialogue with the material, shaped by its subtle colour variations, fraying ends and differing thicknesses. The repetitive, meditative processes of coiling, crocheting, knotting and binding act as gestures of care and resistance against waste and disconnection to land and ocean. 

Blue Realm is part of a series of workshops, displays and artworks exploring the problem of plastic from a range of perspectives, including sculptures created from recycled plastic by Croydon Hills Primary School students following a workshop with artist Carolyn Cardinet.

Opening event

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Musicians Anna McMichael, Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold

Join us for an exciting opening event with a live performance by musicians Erik Griswold, Anna McMichael and Vanessa Tomlinson, featured in the Peak Plastique video installation created by Nick Roux. Each piece explores a musical textural world of its own, being inspired by a specific synthetic or natural element, ranging from polypropylene and PVC to seaweed packaging. The music evokes both a fascination for plastic and a deep sense of precarity.  

Everyone is also welcome to come to an informal artist talk before the launch during a special Maroondah Arts Collective gathering.

Please RSVP via the form below. 

  • Date: Thursday 9 October 2025
  • Time: 6pm to 7.30pm (informal artist talk from 5.30pm)
  • Venue: ArtSpace at Realm, 179 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood
  • Cost: Free 

Register online

Associated programming

Further information

Peak Plastique is a Clocked Out project supported by Creative Arts Research Institute, Griffith University and Monash University.

For more information please contact Council on 1300 88 22 33 or email arts@maroondah.vic.gov.au.

When

  • Monday, 29 September 2025 | 09:00 AM - Sunday, 16 November 2025 | 05:00 PM

Location

ArtSpace at Realm, 179 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood, 3134, View map

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Event summary

Cost

Free

Contact

Maroondah City Council
1300 88 22 33
03 9298 4598
gallery.attendant@maroondah.vic.gov.au

View the sculptures

The sculptures can be viewed at ArtSpace at Realm from 29 September until 16 November 2025

 

Opening times

  • Monday-Friday, 9am to 8pm
  • Saturday & Sunday, 10am to 5pm

Getting here

The Realm building is in Ringwood Town Square and has a white diamond facade.

  • Parking available at Eastland Shopping Centre. When arriving via Ringwood Bypass, enter from Ringwood Street at West 5. If you arrive from Warrandyte Road, use entry East 6. Parking is free for the first 3 hours.
  • Public transport
    Realm is across the road from Ringwood Train Station

Accessibility

  • Accessible Parking spaces available on the other side of Ringwood Town Square (Eastland Level 3), approximately 60m from Realm entry
  • Accessible toilets available on every level
  • Changing Places accessible toilet available on Level 1
  • Internal lifts available to provide ease of access to every level

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