Born 1982 in Brisbane (Australia), lives and works between Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) and Bundjalung Country (Lismore, New South Wales).

Megan Cope is a Quandamooka woman from Moreton Bay, South-East Queensland. Her site-specific sculptural installations, video works, and paintings investigate issues relating to identity, the environment and mapping practices; but also propositions of potential futures alluding to climate change, land ownership and migration – pressing concerns of global relevance.

Created in 2020 for the Adelaide Biennial, her installation Untitled (Death Song) takes as its starting point the ghostly, wailing call of the bush stone curlew, a threatened bird species in many parts of Australia. She interprets their song as a metaphor for the cry of our endangered planet, alerting us to today’s environmental problems and the point of no return we are approaching. Composed of five large-scale sculptural instruments built from discarded mining and industrial equipment together with local natural elements, the installation is conceived to be activated punctually by musicians following a specifically composed score.

Megan Cope is represented by Milani Gallery (Brisbane).