Floating Land
Floating Land is Australia’s premiere art in the environment event, taking in sites across Noosa. Conceived in 2001 as a biennial outdoor sculptural program, Floating Land sees artists engaging with and working collaboratively with the environment to create projects and installations that leave no trace at the end of the event.
From 28 June – 27 July 2025, Noosa becomes the stage for immersive installations, performances, and workshops by acclaimed artists from around the globe.
Captivating thousands of visitors, and uniting local, national & international artists in a powerful celebration of creativity, environment, and connection; step into a world where creativity and sustainability meet at Australia’s pioneering environmental art event, Floating Land.
FLOATING LAND IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS
A large wall in the Council Chambers has been given over to surveying and celebrating a collection of Floating Land projects that have been presented since the biennale’s inception in 2021. Images of key projects rotate through the space and are refreshed on an annual basis. The current featured projects include Firings on the Lake by Rowley Drysdale, Ellen Appleby, Tony Grimshaw and Sue Coburn, together with various local ceramic artists and featuring a performance by Kabi Kabi man, Lyndon Davis (2009); and Custodians of the Interval by Juan Ford (2023).
ROWLEY DRYSDALE, ELLEN APPLEBY, TONY GRIMSHAW and SUSAN COBURN with various local ceramic artists. Performance by LYNDON DAVIS
Firings on the Lake (2009)
Producing one of the most iconic images from Floating Land’s history, Firings on the Lake saw a team of ceramic artists create a series of small volcanic sculptures on Lake Cootharaba in Boreen Point that functioned as floating kilns, fired in spectacular fashion at sunset. Situated against a dramatic backdrop, the kilns invited contemplation and quietude while referencing the volcanic origins of the area.
On one particularly special occasion, the firings were complimented by a performance by Kabi Kabi man, Lyndon Davis who played the digeridoo in the knee-deep water while fire and smoke billowed from the kilns not far beyond.
Firings on the Lake was part of Floating Land: Risings Seas, curated by Christine Ballinger in 2009
Photo: Raoul Slater
JUAN FORD
Custodians of the Interval (2023)
Celebrated for his hyper-realistic paintings, this project saw Juan Ford take what is typically the source material for his elaborate two-dimensional works and shifted it into a space that can be experienced in three dimensions.
Walking along the Park Road Boardwalk between Noosa National Park and Noosa Main Beach, the naturally treed space between the elevated platform and the sea opened to reveal a grouping of familiar yet discordant figures forms. Covered in native leaves, the idea of the natural (out there in nature), and the human, were collapsed into relative indistinction.
Ford’s installation prompted the dual idea that everything we do and are, is natural, and so much of what we do and are, is harming natural processes. More globally, we are inseparable from the environmental consequences of our actions, as all actions done to nature are done to ourselves.
Custodians of the Interval was part of Floating Land: Us and Them, curated by Michael Brennan in 2023.
Photo: Warwick Gow
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Main image: FL23 logo.