The Making of PIPES

Bankstown Arts Centre is a cultural facility, where artists and community groups collaborate to explore ideas and learn, create and experience contemporary community-based arts.

Bankstown Arts Centre

How can art be co-created with a plumber, a microbiologist and an artist?

The Bankstown Arts Centre

Gut Waters Public Programs

Gut Waters explores the role of the human gut in reimagining our health and place in the world. Explore this series of public programs led by the artists and curators of this show to develop a deeper understanding of gut health across art and science.

With Eugenia Lim, Jonni Te Waa, Lucien AlpersteinFacilitated by Rachael KiangHow can art be co-created with a plumber, a microbiologist and an artist?Hear from the creative team behind the new commission for Gut Waters PIPES about making art with non-art skills and knowledge. A robust discussion that will inspire working across disciplines in creative and other settings.PIPES is a fountain and site-specific sculpture commissioned for Gut Waters. It is the result of a collaboration between artist Eugenia Lim and plumber and gas fitter Jonni Te Waa. PIPES explores connections between our body’s ‘internal plumbing’ and the sanitation systems that shape our cities and rivers. It takes a playful, ecological and relational approach to bodies and the systems they are enmeshed within.The fountain contains a custom kombucha brewed from Bankstown drinking water; river water collected from Bankstown-area Georges, Duck and Cooks rivers; and water sourced from Manly beach, near the North Head Treatment Plant, where Bankstown’s wastewater flows into the Pacific ocean. As Uncle Chris Tobin shares, “Badhu (water) runs through us all, so it connects our ancestors to now. Tracing the flow and cycle of living waters through the bodies and metabolisms of Bankstown, the liquid that flows through PIPES merges ancient and contemporary bodies of living water.PIPES is created in dialogue with the history and ecology of Dharug lands and waters, and contemporary Bankstown as a vibrant hub of Asian, SWANA-region and intercultural exchange.Plumber and sculptural collaborator: Jonni Te WaaDharug custodian and cultural advisor: Uncle Chris TobinMicrobiologist and kombucha brewer: Lucien Alperstein3D modelling: Alan DamenWater collectors: Leanne Niblock, Lucien Alperstein, Vanessa Bartlett and Paul and Faith Byrne

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