Worlds Around Us | Tweed Regional Gallery [27 June 2025 – 9 November 2025]
“...we need to relearn multiple forms of curiosity. Curiosity is an attunement to multi-species entanglement, complexity and the shimmer all around us.” Tsing, A. [et al.] (2017) Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene
The artworks in Worlds Around Us by Sammy Hawker are interactions between the artist and the more-than-human worlds she encounters. Following the humpback whale cycle of migration along the east coast of Australia, the works explore interspecies dialogue, material presence and how a practice of curiosity cultivates empathy and care.
For Worlds Around Us Hawker worked with Australian designer Sam Tomkins to develop an analogue cymatic instrument that projects the imagery of sound vibrating through water. The hydrophone recordings of humpback whale song, collected by Mark Franklin of The Oceania Project off the east coast of Australia, are played through the instrument creating a series of fascinating visuals.
Hawker’s multidisciplinary practice embraces text, sculpture, photography, sound and moving image. The works form a vast and ongoing archive, documenting sites and moments of exchange.
Humpback Whale Migrating South, 2024
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
136cm x 110cm
Cymatic Figure from Humpback Whale Song (Maia #4), 2025
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
110cm x 110cm
Cymatic Figure from Humpback Whale Song (Equinox #1), 2025
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
110cm x 110cm
beyond the veil, 2021
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
59.4cm x 84.1cm
holding things lightly, feeling them deeply, 2024
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
60cm x 48cm
Live Cymatics Projection (The East Australian Humpback Whale Songs)
Cymatics (from Ancient Greek: κῦμα for 'wave') is the study of making sound and vibration visible. I have recently been working with Australian designer Sam Tomkins to develop a series of analogue cymatic instruments - including this one which reveals the shape of sound when vibrating through water
Here the plate is responding to hydrophone recordings of humpback whale songs. These recordings were collected by Mark Franklin of The Oceania Project off the coast of eastern Australia, during the humpback whales cycle of migration between their birthplace in the Great Barrier Reef and their Antarctic feeding areas..
The Oceania Project is a long-term research project established in 1988 by Franklin’s parents, Dr Trish and Dr Wally Franklin, dedicated to raising awareness around humpback whales. The research published by The Oceania Project gives insights into eastern Australian humpback whales' social behaviour and organisation, abundance and reproduction and emphasises the importance of rehabilitation, preservation and conservation of humpback whales and their ocean environment.
Cymatic Figure from Humpback Whale Song (Pleiades #1), 2025
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
60cm x 48cm
Cymatic Figure from Humpback Whale Song (Equinox #2), 2025
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
60cm x 48cm
Cymatic Figure from Humpback Whale Song (Migaloo #1), 2025
pigment inkjet print on archival cotton rag
60cm x 48cm
Cymatic Projection of Whale Song | (Migaloo) recorded in 1998 by Mark Franklin for The Oceania Project. Migaloo is a rare albino humpback whale that, when first sighted, was believed to be the only white whale in the world.
Cymatic Projection of Whale Song | (Maia) recorded on the 1992 southern hemisphere spring equinox by Mark Franklin for The Oceania Project.