• • 2015 / Plaster, paint, laser cut steel, garbage bags, line / photographs by Kathy Holowko (and Norbert Csampai)

Batmania is a public art installation of around 200 fruit bats that was originally commission for the Atrium of Federation Square. The exhibition was open 24hrs during April and May, 2015. A sound work by Darius Kedros accompanied the installation and played in the morning and evening each day, marking the bat’s flight in and out of their camp. This project was developed with the Creative Projects team at Federation Square and supported by the City of Melbourne 2015 Arts Grants Program.• BATMANIA made an appearance in an un-used shopfront in Dandenong on July 9, 2015. ‘Nocturnal – Art after Dark’ was an invitation to wander the streets and discover artwork in unexpected locations in Dandenong’s urban spaces. Illuminated by Lighting Designer Rachel Burke …It was moody!

• Batmania was also on show in Albury Library Museum as part of the Writers Festival in September 2015. With keynote speaker Tim Flannery they were in good company. Batmania told a story about the unique wild animal that has been haunted by literary fiction for hundreds of years, and yet has it’s own intriguing ecological story to tell. It challenges the perceptions we have of bats that have been inherited from Gothic tales and horror literature and sought to counterbalance the view of these wild animals as important in a healthy eco system.