Lyndal Jones: climate change, performance and the Avoca Project

The Avoca Project  (2005–15) by Lyndal Jones is a broad communal artwork based on a German prefabricated house, transported in 1850 to the small Australian town of Avoca in rural Victoria. The Avoca Project is a place where Jones and visiting artists, academics and members of the local community can gather to deliberate the effect of climate change and regional identity within a changing Australian socio-economic rural environment.The Avoca Project bridges the divide between contemporary art practice and local community. Jones’s 2010 performance, Rehearsing Catastrophe #1: The Ark in Avoca, illustrates her belief in The Avoca Project as a keystone for environmental discussion and survival of the local community. This performative video work exemplifies Jones’s reasons for utilising art as a powerful expression of climate change and the notion of local. Under her management, The Avoca Project signposts the creative challenge of a changing natural environment and its effect upon a small regional township.