C O - W O R M - I N G
Grey Dear, Emily Simek, Joy Zhou, and a mobile worm farm
Boyd Community Hub
Wurundjeri land
Naarm/Melbourne
This six month residency explored how practices in commoning, seen in community gardening, can be applied within artist residency spaces, and how this could inform future ‘co-worm-ing’ practices.
Approaching the residency space as a common garden, we explored practices in resource sharing, maintenance, seasonality, and collective decision making, undertaking performance explorations around the Boyd Community Hub and surrounding neighbourhood - through scores, group walking practices, writing, and intensive workshopping.
We hosted theoretical ‘working bees’, where we invited leading practitioners and academics in our field, to support the development of our co-worm-ing practice, and as part of investigations into research practices within non-academic environments, with limited resources and DIY approaches: Jacina Leong, Amaara Raheem, Hélène Frichot.
The residency culminated in a public event, we called an “open garden”. This is an expanded take on a traditional open studio, informed by our work with principles of commoning, where participants joined in on our co-worm-ing practice.
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co-worm-ing is an ongoing process-led collaborative practice that explores composting as a methodology of artistic collaboration.
Images:
co-worm-ing, open garden, Boyd Community Hub, 2025. Photography: Astrid Mulder.
Grey Dear, Emily Simek, Joy Zhou, and a mobile worm farm
Boyd Community Hub
Wurundjeri land
Naarm/Melbourne
This six month residency explored how practices in commoning, seen in community gardening, can be applied within artist residency spaces, and how this could inform future ‘co-worm-ing’ practices.
Approaching the residency space as a common garden, we explored practices in resource sharing, maintenance, seasonality, and collective decision making, undertaking performance explorations around the Boyd Community Hub and surrounding neighbourhood - through scores, group walking practices, writing, and intensive workshopping.
We hosted theoretical ‘working bees’, where we invited leading practitioners and academics in our field, to support the development of our co-worm-ing practice, and as part of investigations into research practices within non-academic environments, with limited resources and DIY approaches: Jacina Leong, Amaara Raheem, Hélène Frichot.
The residency culminated in a public event, we called an “open garden”. This is an expanded take on a traditional open studio, informed by our work with principles of commoning, where participants joined in on our co-worm-ing practice.
---
co-worm-ing is an ongoing process-led collaborative practice that explores composting as a methodology of artistic collaboration.
Images:
co-worm-ing, open garden, Boyd Community Hub, 2025. Photography: Astrid Mulder.