Tania Willard
Born 1976, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Lives and works in Neskonlith, Secwepemcúl ecw Secwépemc and settler Canadian 

Forest Glass 2026
coloured perspex, custom printed survey tape, timber frame
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with generous support from Canada Council for the Arts
Courtesy of the artist 

Forest Glass looks through the layered ecologies of time, from ancient coal-forming forests to the environmental legacy of colonial industry. Drawing on the history of glass-making Forest Glass reframes the window as a site of both extraction and reflection. The green hue references early iron-rich forest glass and uranium glass, its eerie glow hinting at toxicity, radiation, and the by-products of modern industry. 

The piece traces the alchemy of plants like ancient calamites, progenitors of coal, and their modern relatives, the invasive horsetails, whose spread echoes colonial impact. Horsetails, native to most continents but invasive in Australia, become metaphors for settler colonialism and ecological disruption. 

Installed in the industrial windows of White Bay Power Station, the work gestures toward the history of glass as a colonial commodity—once taxed, traded, and controlled. Yet Forest Glass also invokes resistance: referencing Australia’s Green Bans and centering Indigenous resilience. With its glowing green aura, it offers a speculative window into decolonial futures, where environmental healing and deeper kinship with land might yet emerge.