Join this fermentation class led by artist and curator Lleah Smith that invites you to challenge the notion of contamination
Saturday 23 August, 10am-1pm
Come bubble together in this unique fermencise (fermentation exercise) that invites you to reflect on stories of contamination—and to weave these into a fizzy jar to take home.
Through lively dialogue, collective reflection, and hands-on making, we’ll explore contamination as something to welcome: a generative force that blurs boundaries, stirs change, and invites us to connect in wild and unexpected ways.
Using salt, surplus, and shared time, we’ll bruise, mix, and pack our experiences into bubbling jars that hold both memory and transformation. Along the way, we’ll map what it means to live and learn in a world where nothing stays pure, and everything is shaped by contact.
Come with busy hands, a curious palate, and a story that wants to shift.
You’ll leave with your own small ferment—and perhaps, a newly contaminated way of feeling the world.
When
Saturday 23 August, 10am-1pm
Where
Cost
$10
Lleah Smith practices at the intersection of pedagogy, art, and the curatorial. Since 2012, she has made significant contributions in the Asia-Pacific, working independently and through institutional roles. She is currently Head of Public Practice & Creative Enquiry at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre and Puke Ariki Museum and Libraries in Ngāmotu, Aotearoa.
Her PhD research at Monash University and the University of Illinois agitates the pedagogy–art–curatorial relationship by positioning fermentation as teacher, speculative metaphor, and guiding force for change. Smith creates spaces of productive agitation within caring environments that enable difference to flourish.
Her independent research into the para-pedagogical—named during a 2024 residency at Konstmuseet i Norr (KIN), Sweden and cultivated over 12 years of practice—extends this enquiry into situated, materially grounded curatorial methodologies.