Artists from across the Central West have banded together to present an exhibition at WAYOUT Artspace in Kandos titled 'There is No Lead Mine Here', that opens this weekend.
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The exhibition which runs from October 7 to November 9 explores the anxieties and impacts surrounding a large scale open cut silver mine approved within kilometres of the community, according to curator, Rylstone based artist Gus Armstrong.
The exhibition opens the same week a first of its kind Upper House enquiry into the potential Impacts of Gold, Silver, Lead and Zinc Mining on human health, land, air and water quality held a hearing in Mudgee on Wednesday.
"I knew we had to do something and so I reached out to my fellow artists and community members to invite them to have a say, to talk together about what this very frightening development meant to us as a community," Mr Armstrong said.
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"This process seemed to happen with such a sense of inevitability, as though the system was designed to overlook the risks to the community. This experience isn't exclusive to the artists or even just the farmers, but everyone thinks about it, even if in the end they might see the economic benefits of the mine.
"This is our opportunity to talk about these huge changes we are facing and the powerlessness we feel in the face of them."
A spokesperson for Bowdens Silver told the Mudgee Guardian in June that a number of independent risk assessments determined that the mine would not pose any risk to residents.
"Bowdens Silver has undertaken a rigorous assessment process that has been underway since 2016 and involved extensive community consultation over that seven-year period," the spokesperson said.
A number of artists will be exhibiting, including Jo Albany, Gus Armstrong, Terry Burrows, Maddison Gibbs, Aleshia Lonsdale, Christine McMillan, Maddison O'Brien, Michael Petchkovsky, Georgie Pollard, Andrew Robards, Henry Simmons, Lulu Wulf, Emma Syme, Peter Swain, Leanne Wicks, Julie Williams, Jason Wing, Alex Wisser and Blak Douglas an artist with Dhungatti heritage who won the Archibald Prize in 2022.
