​Larnaca Biennale 'Along Lines and Traces'
Larnaca, Cyprus
15th October - 28th November 2025
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CO-Lapses (2025): Selected for Larnaca Biennale
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​Karma Barnes has been selected to represent Aotearoa New Zealand/Australia at the Larnaca Biennale 2025 in Cyprus, presenting a major new iteration of CO-Lapses as part of the Biennale’s fourth edition themed Along Lines and Traces. This highly competitive international event, curated by Sana López Abellán, has selected 117 artworks from 43 countries. The Biennale invites artists to explore how movements, memories, and mark-making shape human experience, how the traces we leave on the land and within each other carry meaning across time. With over 60,000 visitors expected, Larnaca Biennale is the largest and most significant contemporary art event in Cyprus, supported by the Deputy Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Larnaca, and the ARTION Cultural Association.
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Expanding the Traces: CO-Lapses in Cyprus
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CO-Lapses is an evolving sculptural installation that draws from Barnes’ ongoing material research into earth pigments, climate adaptation, and human-nonhuman collaboration. At the core of the work is an observation made in her Australian studio: solitary mud dauber wasps harvesting local ochres to construct their intricate nests. These elegant biomorphic forms informed the suspended vessels of CO-Lapses, each containing local sand and pigment that slowly releases over time, mapping a quiet, durational landscape of accretion and erosion. This 2025 iteration resonates profoundly with the Cypriot context, where Sceliphron spirifex, a local species of mud dauber, similarly creates mud structures on human-built surfaces, offering a cross-continental dialogue on adaptation, labour, and ecological interdependence.
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Lines of Memory, Ecology, and Shared Geographies
​Presented within the conceptual frame of Along Lines and Traces
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CO-Lapses becomes a meditation on how lines, literal and metaphorical, carry histories of both fragility and resilience. The work gestures towards planetary interconnectedness, where the traces of insect labour, human displacement, and geological shifts become entangled. Through the slow release of pigment and sand, Barnes’ installation mirrors the movement of bodies across territories, the sedimentation of time, and the precarious balance of our ecological future. The Cyprus iteration extends CO-Lapses' exploration of embodied memory, material agency, and relational ecologies, situating it within both local narratives and global conversations on environmental change.
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Community Pigment Callout
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The Lismore Regional Gallery and artist Karma Barnes invite the community to participate in the Relative Terrains project through collecting and contributing local pigments, clays and soils. The exhibition Relative Terrains by local artist Karma Barnes and New Zealand artist Robért Franken, will be on display at Grafton Regional Gallery from 16 September - 12 November, and the pigments collected by the community will be used to make the works.
If you would like to be involved, please follow the pigment gathering and contribution process below. SUBMISSIONS HAVE NOW CLOSED
1. Materials Collection: Participants are requested to gather 250-gram samples of local pigments, soils, ochres, rock pigments and flood mud. Please be mindful and respectful of locations when gathering materials, for further guidelines visit https://wildpigmentproject.org/reciprocal-foraging
2. Labeling: Each sample should be labeled with the following information:
• Location gathered: Specify the specific location or region from which the pigment was collected.
• Name of collector: Provide your name as the collector of the pigment.
• Contact details: Include your contact details (email address or phone
number) for further communication, if necessary.
• Personal connection, knowledge, or story: Share briefly any personal connection, knowledge, or story related to the place from which the pigment was gathered. This will contribute to the narrative and significance of the resulting artwork.
3. Packaging Requirements: To ensure the integrity of the materials, please follow these
guidelines:
• Well-sealed container jar or bag: Place the materials in a container jar or bag that is tightly sealed to prevent any spillage or contamination during transit.
• Dry and clean: Ensure that the materials are dry and free from debris, such as leaves, twigs, or other foreign matter.
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Community Cartography Workshops
LISMORE REGIONAL GALLERY
Thursday 17 August, 11 am - 1 pm
Lismore Quad BOOKED OUT
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GRAFTON REGIONAL GALLERY
Saturday 7 October, 11 am -1 pm
Grafton Regional Gallery BOOKED OUT (contact the gallery for waiting list)
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Join artist Karma Barnes in the Mapping Internal & External Terrains: Community Cartography workshop to explore the intersection of art, mapping, and personal experiences through earth pigments.
The workshop traverses the geological terrain and volcanic landscapes of the Northern Rivers and explores how we, the inhabitants of the land, form and change with the forces of the elements, time, pressures, and climatic factors. Participants are invited to each gather and bring with them 250-gram samples of local pigments, ochres, soils, charcoals or flood mud from their local environment. Participants will learn about processing materials into usable pigments and working with binders and mulling processes to transform these pigments into natural paints. Participants will create 3 works on paper to take home and contribute to a series of collaborative pigment paintings to contribute to the larger Refective Cartographies artwork, that will be exhibited at Lismore Regional Gallery (and then featured in the artist's upcoming show, Relative Terrains, at Grafton Regional Gallery opening on September 16th.
This workshop is for people aged 14 +.
Tickets and more information at https://lismoregallery.org/community-cartography-workshop
This workshop is part of our Science Week program Dark Science: New Moon.
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Relative Terrains Research Body 2020 - 2023
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Relative Terrains is a practice-based research body that explores the interconnections between environmental changes and human experiences. The project is a collaborative effort by Karma Barnes and Robért Franken. The project has been developed over three art residencies at The School of Creativity and Art in Wellington, New Zealand in 2021 and 2022 (where Robért is a permanent artist in residence) and then continued during their third residency in late 2022 at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in the Northern Rivers. During their residencies, Barnes and Franken immersed themselves in the natural environment exploring the geological terrains and their internal responses. Their research involved extensive fieldwork, including creative mapping, and pigment collection from across the Northern Rivers, engaging with local communities and Indigenous knowledge holders.
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The resulting artworks in Relative Terrains are a reflection of their research and experiences. The large-scale installations and suspended paintings are produced in a range of mediums, including locally sourced pigments, which are used to create a connection between the artwork and the land.
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The exhibition aims to create an immersive experience for the viewers, inviting them to explore the interconnections between environmental changes and human experiences. The artwork highlights the dramatic shifts in our environmental cycles and how this informs our internal and external experiences.
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The exhibition was initially scheduled for January 2023 at the Lismore Regional Gallery, but the exhibition was displaced due to the devastating floods earlier this year. The Grafton Regional Gallery has now snapped up the opportunity to house the exhibition, along with a number of other displaced exhibitions.
Relative Terrains is an inspiring example of practice-based research, which highlights the importance of collaboration, engagement with local communities, and the use of locally sourced materials in the creation of artwork. The exhibition offers a unique and immersive experience that invites viewers to explore the interconnections between the environment and human experiences.
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