ABOUT
Kim Williams is a practising artist who lives in Wollongong on Wadi Wadi Country. Her work explores the relationship of people with land and sea, through socially engaged art projects and gallery exhibitions. Kim’s art practice encompasses sculpture, design, drawing, multimedia installation, public events, performance and music.
Kim’s recent projects include Pootopia! (with Lucas Ihlein and others), City + Sea (with Leah Gibbs, Lucas Ihlein, Sarah Hamylton) Plastic-free Biennale (with Lucas Ihlein, as part of NIRIN 2020 Biennale of Sydney), and Sugar vs the Reef? + Watershed Land Art Project (with Lucas Ihlein and community collaborators).
Since the 1990s, Kim has exhibited in numerous gallery exhibitions: solo, collaborative and invitational. Her public art commissions include the Aquifer water features for Shellharbour Civic Plaza (2017). She is a member of the artist group Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation, and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
CV
EDUCATION
2020 PhD, Creative Arts, University of Wollongong
Thesis: “Ecologies of Art: Social Engagement, Collaboration and the Environment”
Supervisors: Dr Lucas Ihlein, Dr Su Ballard
2012 Research Masters, Creative Arts (Highly Commended), University of Wollongong
Thesis: “Trickle Down Effect: Sculpture and Land”
Supervisor: Dr Penny Harris
1995 Bachelor of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong
PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH PROJECTS
2023-ongoing Pootopia!
Research: Exploring the environmental benefots of composting toilets
Collaborators: A/Prof Lucas Ihlein, community partners
2022-24 City+Sea
Research: Coastal cities in a changing climate
Collaborators: A/Prof Leah Gibbs, A/Prof Lucas Ihlein, A/Prof Sarah Hamylton
2019-20 Plastic-free Biennale for NIRIN: 2020 Biennale of Sydney
Research: Plastics and the environmental impacts of international art events
Collaborator: Dr Lucas Ihlein
2018-20 Mapping the Islands: How can art & science save the Great Barrier Reef?
Research: Interdisciplinary collaborative approaches towards the protection of the Great Barrier Reef
Collaborators: A/Prof Sarah Hamylton, A/Prof Leah Gibbs,A/Prof Lucas Ihlein
2016-20 Sugar vs the Reef?
Research: How socially engaged art methods bring communities together to build awareness of sustainable agricultural practices
Collaborators: A/Prof Lucas Ihlein, Central Queensland Soil Health Systems, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Mackay and District Australian South Sea Islander Association, Yuwibara Aboriginal Custodian, community members
2016 Kiribati Fisheries Blog
Research: An artist’s perspective on the Community Based Fisheries Management program in Kiribati
Project partners: Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, with local Fisheries Management partners in Kiribati
2014-18 Walking Upstream: Waterways of the Illawarra
Research: Practices of care for urban waterways through community creek-walks
Collaborators: A/Prof Brogan Bunt, A/Prof Lucas Ihlein
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Watermarks, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery
2012 Under a Cloud, Backstage Hope Theatre, University of Wollongong
2011 The Long View, Maitland Regional Gallery
2009 Landmarks, Wollongong City Gallery
COLLABORATIVE SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART EXHIBITIONS
2024 City+Sea, University of Wollongong Art Gallery, with Leah Gibbs, Lucas Ihlein, Sarah Hamylton, Aunty Barbara Nicholson, Hayden Griffith
Pootopia! Composting toilet interactive installation, Wollongong Botanic Gardens, with Lucas Ihlein and others
2023 Pootopia! Composting toilet interactive installation, Yours and Owls Music Festival, University of Wollongong, with Lucas Ihlein and others
2022 Waterland, Wayout Gallery, Kandos, with Laura Fisher
2022 Plastic-free Kandos, Wayout Gallery, Kandos with Lucas Ihlein, Rox de Luca, Juundaal Strang-Yettica
2021 Plastic in the House, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, with Lucas Ihlein
2020 Plastic-free Biennale, NIRIN: 2020 Biennale of Sydney, with Lucas Ihlein
2018 Sugar vs the Reef? Artspace, Mackay, Queensland, with Lucas Ihlein
2014-18 Walking Upstream: Waterways of the Illawarra, Wollongong Art Gallery, with Brogan Bunt and Lucas Ihlein
SELECTED INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2024 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize, Manly Art Gallery and Museum
2016 Libris Artists Book Awards, Artspace Mackay
2015 Fluid States: Performing Mobilities exhibition and symposium, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Looking for Sound: Pure and Easy, See St Gallery, Meadowbank
North Sydney Art Prize, Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, Waverton
2014 Bouquet of Cactus, Shoalhaven City Art Centre
International Women’s Day Exhibition, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
2013 Toward 2020, North Sydney Art Prize, Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, Waverton
Faculty of Creative Arts 30th Anniversary Staff show, University of Wollongong
2012 WCG Resident Artist 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Wollongong City Gallery
2011 Thirty Seven, Wollongong TAFE teachers’ exhibition, Wollongong City Gallery
Bouquet of Cactus, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
International Women’s Day: 100 Years, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
2010 Women’s Work, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
TAFE Staff Show, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
2009 Meroogal Women’s Art Prize travelling exhibition
2008 Impdrawing, Imp Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Meroogal Women’s Art Prize travelling exhibition
1998 South Sydney Sculpture Symposium, South Sydney Park, St Peters
Local Knowledge, Wollongong City Gallery
Northern Exposure, Thirroul Seaside and Arts Festival
Wasted, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
1996 National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, W.A.
Femartism: Feminism, Diversity and Culture, Project Contemporary Artspace
1995 Psychology Foundation Art Prize, Wollongong
Current, Project Contemporary Artspace, Wollongong
ART and DESIGN COMMISSIONS
2024 Artist and designer, Landscape rehydration educational toolkit, Mulloon Institute and Water NSW
2023 Artist and designer, Water’s Patterns and Processes, educational poster for the Mulloon Institute
2020-21 Designer, water features and play equipment, Burton Street Mall, Vincentia, (NBRS Architecture, Shoalhaven Council)
2014-17 Designer, Aquifer water features, Shellharbour Civic Plaza (Turf Design, Shellharbour City Council)
2008-09 Designer, stormwater grates, Thirroul District Community Centre and Library (Wollongong City Council)
2005-08 Wentworth Street mosaic project (Wollongong City Council)
2005 Junction Road cycleway mosaic project (Shellharbour City Council)
AWARDS
2013 Winner, Sculpture Award, North Sydney Art Prize
Winner, People’s Choice Award, North Sydney Art Prize
2008 Bundanon Trust Residential Scholarship, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize
Winner, People’s Choice Award, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize
2004 Bundanon Trust Residential Scholarship, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize
1997 Winner, MM Kembla Products Acquisitive Sculpture Prize
1992 Winner, Howard Worner Acquisitive Art Prize, University of Wollongong
RESIDENCIES
2018 Artist in Residence, Bundanon
2011 Artist in Residence, Bundanon
2008/9 Resident Artist, Wollongong Art Gallery
2005 Artist in Residence, Bundanon
PUBLICATIONS
2022 Kim Williams (lead author), Lucas Ihlein. "Fresh water, salt water: socially engaged art, collaboration and the environment", (Book chapter), Water Lore: Practice, Place and Poetics (eds. Camille Rouliere and Claudia Egerer), Routledge Environmental Humanities
2022 Susie Lingham, 2022, “A larger reality”, Cultural Connections, vol.6, pp.112-120
2020 Lucas Ihlein and Kim Williams, “Imagining the Impossible”. The Point, ArtAsiaPacific, Issue 120, Sept/Oct 2020
2020 Sarah Hamylton, Kim Williams, Leah Gibbs, Lucas Ihlein, “Interdisciplinary insights on the climate crisis: Narratives from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia”. Geohumanities, Volume 6, Issue 2 (2020)
2019 Kim Williams (lead author), Sarah Hamylton, Leah Gibbs, Lucas Ihlein. “Sustaining the Seas through Interdisciplinary Songwriting”. (Book chapter) In Sustaining Seas:Oceanic space and the politics of care, (Edited by Elspeth Probyn, Kate Johnston and Nancy Lee). Published by Rowman and Littlefield
2019 Kim Williams (lead author), Lucas Ihlein. “Two places: Working and Walking with Waterways”. (Book chapter). In 100 Atmospheres: Studies in Scale and Wonder. Published by Open Humanities Press
2019 Leah Gibbs, Kim Williams, Sarah Hamylton, Lucas Ihlein. “Rock the Boat.” Cultural Geographies in Practice, Vol. 27 Issue 2: 311-315. Article first published online: November 19, 2019
2018 Lucas Ihlein, Laura Fisher, Kim Williams, Simon Mattsson, “Socially Engaged Art and Agriculture: Experimenting with Extension”, Journal of Sustainability Education 17, February 2018
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2018 Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein. Keynote address, Creative Ecologies: Art, Science and Community Collaboration in the Anthropocene, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
2018 Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein. “Farmer/Artist Collaborations: An Australian Perspective”, May 2018, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
2018 Kim Williams. “Transdisciplinary collaboration: Weaving through a Changing Reef”, Interrogating Impact: Research in a Changing World, Postgraduate symposium, University of Wollongong, 3 September 2018
2017 Kim Williams, Sarah Hamylton, Lucas Ihlein. “Interdisciplinary research methods and the sea”, Sustaining the Seas:Fish, Oceanic Space and the Politics of Caring, 11-13 December, Sydney University, NSW, Australia
2017 Kim Williams. “Fresh Water, SaltWater: Collaboration, Social Engagement and the Environment”, H2O: Life and Death, 15-16 September, J.M Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, University of Adelaide, South Australia
2017 Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein, Water Futures – Asia Pacific Knowledge Exchange and Transdisciplinary Laboratory, 23-25 February 2017, Melbourne, Australia
2016 Kim Williams, Brogan Bunt, Lucas Ihlein, “Creek Walking Dialogue: Art and Environmental Activism”, Climate Change: Views from the Humanities (online conference), 3-24 May, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
PROFESSIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2011-2024 Lecturer, Contemporary Arts, School of the Arts English and Media, University of Wollongong, Australia
FUNDING AWARDED
2024 Culture Bank, Wollongong, AUD$2,000 for Pootopia!
2022 Revitalising Research Grant (University of Wollongong), AUD$50,000 for Sustaining City and Sea in Crisis (lead: A/Prof Leah Gibbs)
2019 Australia Council for the Arts, AUD$43,000 for Plastic-free Biennale
Detached Cultural Organisation AUD$10,000 for Plastic-free Biennale
2019 Regional Arts Development Fund (Mackay Regional Council), AUD$8,290 for
Sugar vs the Reef?
2018 Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, AUD$5,000 for Socially Engaged Art research trip to U.S.A
2017 Reef Catchments, Mackay, Queensland, AUD$4,000 towards the event Sunset Symphony in the Sunflowers
Wollongong City Council, AUD$2,000 towards community engagement for Walking Upstream: Waterways of the Illawarra
SELECTED MEDIA
Robyn Williams. 2024. “City and Sea at University of Wollongong.” The Science Show, ABC Radio National, Saturday 24 August 2024 https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/scienceshow/new-chemical-reaction/104147002?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared
Cartwright, Zoe. 2024. “Waste not, want not: Wollongong one step closer to Pootopia thanks to Culture Bank grant”, Region Illawarra, 9 April 2024 https://regionillawarra.com.au/waste-not-want-not-wollongong-one-step-closer-to-pootopia-thanks-to-culture-bank-grant/24043/
Jack, Lizzie. 2023. “Pootopia: the science, art and economics of human manure”, The Stand, University of Wollongong, October 2023. https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2023/pootopia-the-science-art-and-economics-of-human-manure-.php
Williams, Kim. 2022. Interview on Plastic-free Kandos with Alex James, ABC Radio National Central West, July 13, 2022
Williams, Kim and de Luca, Rox. 2022 “Considerations of a Plastic-free art world”. (Public talk). Rise 2, Conversation 1. The Cross Art Projects. Saturday 25 June 2022
Moncrieff, Abigail. 2021. “The work that art does: Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation”. Artlink, Issue 41:2, August 2021
Tracey Clement, 2020, “Towards a Plastic-free Biennale”, Art Guide Australia
Axon: Creative Explorations, Vol 10, No 2, December 2020 (eds Paul Hetherington, Jen Webb) https://axonjournal.com.au/issue-vol-10-no-2-dec-2020/manifesti-plastic-free-biennale
Constellations: Talks across Art, Technology and Science Podcast series, Episode #12, “The Soil”: with Lucas Ihlein, Kim Williams and Simon Mattsson, dLux Media, July 1, 2019