Nature and technology intertwine unexpectedly in Grace Kingston’s work. She creates highly aestheticised, intensified and saturated simulacra of the natural world in the form of immersive environments, objects, images and textiles. Kingston’s works are multi-sensory; equal priority is given to sight, sound and touch, which results in immersive, tactile experiences. In collaboration with Josh Harle, Kingston incorporated touch into a vision-centric medium in a recent VR work, which was activated through human touch on trees and plants.

Rather than treating them like oppositional forces, Kingston locates and highlights parallels between nature and technology. Ecosystems are complex networks, and technologies are equally rhizomatic and interdependent. In Kingston’s work, wires and root systems tangle and interface; plush stones sing to human touch; a body is overtaken by fast-growing moss. By forging connections between nature, humans and technology, Kingston seeks to foster empathy for non-human entities with the hope that this kind of inter-species empathy could be a key to combatting apathy, ignorance and helplessness around human-induced climate change.

Kingston has received Honours (First Class, 2009) and Masters of Fine Art (2012) degrees from the University of New South Wales. Her thesis findings were presented at the interdisciplinary conference ‘Scandal in European and American Culture’ (Poland), and published in the eponymous peer-reviewed journal. Her work has been presented frequently in artist-run and institutional spaces across Sydney since 2012, including at Archive Space, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Airspace Projects, Peacock Gallery Auburn and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. She has been a finalist in the Blake Prize and a recipient of the Marrickville Independent Artist Grant. Alongside her creative practice, Kingston is also a former board member of Runway Experimental Art Journal and a lecturer in Design at SAE Creative Media Institute. In 2019 she curated Botanical Mechanics, a group exhibition of experimental artwork at the intersection of plantlife, machinery and technology.