BIANCA TAINSH

Through a hybrid practice of open-disciplinary art and fluid forms of ecological activity, my work proposes new avenues for the cyber-saturated human to re-entangle with natural realities, often exploring our own state of being as interdependent, multi-species bodies.

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My projects evolve through deep, multi-form investigations that seek to map a blueprint exposing the fabrications shaping generic human existence. Fortified by a metaphysical interconnection with the more-than-human world and the perceived rationality of science, I shape provocations intended to destabilise institutional and societal dogma. These provocations become frameworks for collaborative endeavours with the more-than-human, scientists, engineers, and other creatives.

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The first chapter of my latest project was catalysed by the provocation: As an interspecies communication network, could fungi be a portal for communing with nature? Following a mycological collaboration to learn how to propagate mycorrhizal fungi, I created the bio-artwork Myc-a — a symbiotic body of flora and fauna interconnected by a network of mycorrhizal fungi. To create an initial surge of fungal growth within Myc-a to sync and fuse the species assembled within, a Ritual for Entanglement was performed at Outer Space gallery, Brisbane. The audience convened in a vocal act of collective procreation, bringing Myc-a into being.

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Through a current Metro Arts residency, I am developing a new body of work for exhibition in August 2025. I am also working with engineers at the University of Queensland to develop a machine learning entity capable of deciphering the electrical communications of underground fungal networks. Our methodological provocation: How might Art + Technology manifest an intimate process of interspecies connection with humans, and can an artificial intelligence learn to care by facilitating this nuanced entanglement?

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My work spans video, digital and semi-traditional media, sculpture, and live art. Organic imagery, materials, and processes find new meaning as they converge with technology and cyber ethos. I often relinquish my works to the entropic forces of the more-than-human, who then define the outcomes.
 

 
 
Tainsh has exhibited and held live art performances and events across Australia and overseas. She has participated in international residency programs and has been the recipient of an ArtStart grant, among other accolades and awards. As an advocate of Art for Change, Tainsh has been invited to present a TEDx talk, webinars, and has sat as a panelist for symposiums. Her artistic education includes a 1st Class Honours Degree from RMIT University, and to compliment the social aspects of her practice she studied Arts & Community Engagement at the Victorian College of the Arts.