A Fermentation Plot

A fermentation Plot (2025-26) starts with Madeleine purchasing ginger from an amateur horticulturalist in Hornsby named Valentina Andrejva who taught Collie how to divide the plants. They were then cultivated in small bags within the UTS gallery and over the three months of the exhibition, the plants were kept alive through the care of the curatorial team. They watered them every two days, opened the gallery doors and wheeled the three dollies carrying the bags into the courtyard, allowing the plants to warm themselves in the sun and benefit from local growing conditions.

Once the plants matured they were collected from Sydney and, with permission from the Victorian Department of Agriculture, they were transported by car to the house of curator Amelia Wallin where they were cared for by her family before going to the gallery in Bendigo. Once at the gallery they benefited from the sun and heat of Djarra Country and the care of curator Jacqui Shelton and staff at La Trobe Art Institute. The plants are intended for the community around the gallery, and they will become a ferment that is cared for by each person with the guidance of Dr George Criddle. 

The simple conceptual gesture is that the ginger plants connect the metabolisms of two exhibitions. The careful labours of the curatorial staff in Sydney become offerings to the “bio-metaphysical intelligences” of the gallery’s metabolism in Bendigo, through a sustained, act of surrogacy and  relational care.

The gallery write “A Fermentation Plot invites reflection on the gallery as a site of cultivation and care. Ginger—a plant without fixed origins—has crossed continents for millennia, carried in clothing, planted in new soils and woven into diverse culinary and medicinal traditions. At UTS Gallery, it grows in modular felt bags, sustained by light, water, and staff attention. In early 2026, the plants will be harvested and fermented in Djaara/Bendigo. La Trobe Art Institute audiences will be invited to add to and consume its ferments. Historically rooted in communal life, fermentation fosters shared microbiomes. Here, it becomes a metaphor for the museum as a place where life is sustained and enriched, asking a question at the exhibition’s core: can museums sustain life? Collie’s work highlights the essential, often invisible role of gallery staff in caring for artworks. Through this, Collie draws attention to the interdependencies—ecological, institutional, and social—that shape our world, gesturing toward more just and reciprocal futures.”

Supported by Creative Australia through their international residency partnership with Helsinki International Artist Program (HIAP)

With thanks to: Valentina Andrejva, Connie Anthes, Alice Maia Renzende and Stella McDonald, James Collie and Quinn for their companionship on the journey from Sydney, Amelia Wallin, Rune and Otto for their care over the summer, Jacqui Shelton, Karen Arnett, Dr George Criddle, Ashley Ronning and Helio Press for the printing of this handout, Helsinki International Artist Programme and Creative Australia for the time to experiment with ginger ferments. We are also grateful to the cultivators and custodians of ginger plants across the world, whose knowledge we draw on in creating this collective ferment.