Adrift Lab Science Featured in Lost Landscapes Exhibit at Queen Victoria Museum

Earlier this year, Adrift Lab was invited to contribute to the Lost Landscapes art-science exhibit being developed by photo-media artist Anne Zahalka for the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania. Over many months, Anne worked tirelessly with our team, including PhD students Lillian Stewart and Megan Grant and our amazing project partner, Amber Travica at the Tamar Wetlands, to share photographs, ideas, and scientific samples that could inspire the exhibit.

We’re thrilled to announce Lost Landscapes art-science is now exhibiting at QVMAG and available for the public to view until October 2021. If you’re in the area, please go check it out!

Read about our science that inspired this exhibit here

"One of the images in the exhibit titled "Birds of a feather flock together" showcases the Kunermerluker, an Aboriginal word for Tamar River sanctuary.

While the wetlands have been returned to their former pristine beauty, the Pacific Gull is known to feed at nearby landfills & regurgitate anthropogenic waste which they are unable to digest. These regurgitated pellets (known as boluses) contain plastics that re-enter waterways further contaminating the fragile ecology of marine environments.

The reimagined Tamar wetlands diorama references the Pacific Gulls' consuming these plastics, which the Adrfit Lab team have painstakingly documented through their studies."