Biennale of Sydney: Rememory family day

Client: Biennale of Sydney
Date: Saturday 6 June 2026, 10am–4pm
Location: White Bay Power Station

FLENK Collective invites you to a day of free workshops and activities to engage meaningfully and creatively with the artworks and theme of the 25th Biennale of Sydney: Rememory.

All ages are welcome.
All materials and instructions are provided.

Image: GUL Collective and FLENK Collective at the White Bay Power Station, 2026.
Photograph courtesy Daniel Boud.

Workshop: ‘Poetry in the Dust’ – charcoal and words with artist Akala Newman

Join acclaimed Wiradjuri and Gadigal artist Akala Newman for ‘Poetry in the Dust’, a family-friendly workshop blending poetry, songwriting, and charcoal drawing. Set against the striking backdrop of White Bay Power Station, you’ll consider the site’s industrial past and creative future through word and image.

Using charcoal, a material that carries both history and transformation, you’ll be guided through reflective poetry exercises and expressive mark-making that respond to sound, texture, and emotion. The session culminates in a collaborative artwork that celebrates the power of storytelling and collective imagination.

Workshop: ‘Your presence is a gift’ – listening to plants with Nicole Barakat

Artist Nicole Barakat invites you to listen to plants. Listen and connect through a special collection of flower essences made by the artist. Feel and respond to the energy and spirit of our plant ancestors in creative ways and create an artwork as a gift to yourself, to remember your ability to listen and connect.

We all have the ability to activate our sensitivity to the plant world, to listen with intention and trust the wisdom they generously share with us. Nicole undertook an artist residency in Paris, France in 2023 where she spent time listening to one of her ancestral trees, a 300-year-old Lebanese cedar tree.

Drop-in activity: re-memory re-exchange

Drop in to a friendly little space in a quiet corner of the White Bay Power Station, where you and your family can have a conversation with artists inside the space. During the conversation, you receive a token that fits in the palm of your hand: a gift of a memory fragment from a previous visitor. You learn the person’s first name, and maybe even the artwork or prompt they responded to.

To finish your exchange, you’ll create a small memory fragment to offer back to the memory exchange, to continue a practice of reciprocity.

Part performance, part engagement, part quiet space, and a wholehearted embrace of the Biennale’s theme, this offering activates re-collection and memory practices on a micro-level. The artists from FLENK collective and artist co-creators are the mediators in this memory exchange.