Art and science collide in Angela Rossen’s collaborative, biodiverse artworks

The worlds of science and art intersect in the work of WA painter Angela Rossen. The artist, whose studio is based in Fremantle, told Inspire she had been an artist “all my life”. “I’ve never found anything more compelling and more exciting than being an artist,” Rossen said. But Rossen is also passionate about the “crystal clear” communication of scientific concepts to the public. “Some years ago I decided I really wanted to focus on the environment and I knew that I needed to learn more,” she said. She approached the University of WA with her mission to use her art as a form of science education and now holds an Honorary Research Associate position at the School of Biological Sciences and also serves as an adjunct lecturer in the university’s Oceans Institute, working alongside scientists studying seagrass. There are more similarities between artists and scientists than there might initially seem, according to Rossen. “Artists and scientists have the same motivations, and in some cases they have the same methods, just different outcomes,” she said. “We observe things, and we record them, both artists and scientists. “With artists, the outcome is more subjective, and with scientists it’s more objective, in other words it’s evidence-based. “I find evidence very compelling, so my work’s quite realistic.” The plants take Rossen around WA, spending much of her time on the road, bringing her unique blend of art and science to communities across the State to educate them about their natural environment and the importance of seagrass. In May she is the artist in residence at Denmark Arts House, where she is running community workshops and creating art inspired by the natural landscape, as part of the Knowing Nullaki Festival. Run in collaboration with Green Skills, the festival is named after the local Indigenous name for both seagrass and the Wilson Inlet. It celebrates the body of water and the importance of seagrass to the local ecosystem. Throughout the festival, Rossen has been working with local schools to create 2.4m x 9m artworks that feature species the students see first hand on excursions. She wants to create snapshots of the ecology of the environment by taking each school group to a different part of the inlet. “One school did the migratory birds, the other school did the inlet itself, and the next school that I’m currently working with, we’re doing the river,” Rossen said. The resulting “biodiversity paintings” are collaborations between Rossen, who paints the background, while school students and staff add their own paintings of species to the canvas. Art-based activities are only one part of the events of Knowing Nullaki, which also features workshops to discover creatures living in soil, panel discussions on climate change and Indigenous culture and a survey of the inlet the whole community can get involved in. The festival will culminate in an exhibition at Butter Factory Studios from May 26 to June 26, featuring the big paintings created by the schools and artworks made at other events throughout the festival. Rossen said the exhibition would be more than just a display of paintings of local species. “The exhibition will actually be a biodiversity survey created by the people of Denmark of the living things of the Nullaki Inlet,” she said Visit greenskills.org.au/knowing-nullaki.