As an artist activist motivated by social, political and environmental issues, Coleen Duff is interested in developing a political aesthetic that inspires people to change society for the better. Their practice ranges from installation and performance to film and photography; recent projects include: No Message Protest (2023-), a collaborative protest artwork, with FORETASTE Collective, to highlight how our freedom to demonstrate is being suppressed by an authoritarian government, and Backpack Protest (2023-), an anti-pollution performance artwork responding to their lived experience of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Duff is concerned with how activist art strategies respond to the climate emergency and loss of the natural world, and the environmental threats posed by industrialisation and urbanisation. Their current project how does our garden grow? started as a four-month experiment to see what grew in their garden when they extended No Mow May into August 2023. Quiet activism or ‘plant protest’ takes place by allowing plants in green spaces and pavements to assert their right to live and breathe without being classified as a weed or being cut down.