Inspired by artist Matthew Quick’s painting Intrepid Travellers, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with the University of Sydney’s Sydney...
Introduced Species
City Rd & Cleveland St
2008 NSW
Australia
Line up
Katy Abbott
Iain Grandage
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Ruth Barcan
Access and Inclusion
Event Details
Inspired by artist Matthew Quick’s painting Intrepid Travellers, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with the University of Sydney’s Sydney Ideas program, presents an aural and visual exploration of humanity’s impact on the natural world in Introduced Species – complete with rubber ducks!
In 1992, nearly 29,000 rubber duck toys fell from a ship travelling from Hong Kong to the USA. After floating in their epic ocean bathtub, the first duck beached 1500 kilometres away in Alaska, with more gradually washing up everywhere from Russia to Hawaii. The movement of the ducks across the ocean shed light on water currents, wind patterns and plastic pollution.
Quick responded with his painting of Intrepid Travellers, in turn inspiring Australian composer, Katy Abbott, to write Introduced Species, a composition exploring the environmental issues of the ocean trash vortex.
Join Associate Professor Ruth Barcan (Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney), composer Katy Abbott, conductor Iain Grandage and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as they explore how rubber ducks helped us to understand global ocean currents and the state of our environment through music and visuals.