Artist's Statement
As an artist and historian I am interested in bringing a creative perspective to the layers of information held within a location. I work directly in and with the environment, using charcoal and ink on paper and cloth to document natural forms, and then, in the studio, I employ printmaking, painting and stitching techniques to further develop my response to the location.
The idea of nature as a witness to history underpins my artistic practice. Over 15 years I have enjoyed annual visits to an area along the Murchison River at Murchison House Station near Kalbarri, in mid west Western Australia, 600 km north of Perth. This rugged landscape has formed over 400 million years, and is characterised by red tumblagooda sandstone ridges and outcrops, carved by winding gullies and creeks which feed into the Murchison River. This river travels over 800 km from its arid upper reaches to its mouth at the town of Kalbarri. For most of the time it is a narrow water course, with wide sandy banks, but when cyclones bring heavy rain, the river can turn into a raging force which floods the lower reaches. The water’s force is evident everywhere along the creeks and river, where massive trees lie prone, having been uprooted in floods, and trees which have withstood the current, hold debris within their branches.
The Nanda people lived here, and their presence is still evident in artefacts and location names. There are numerous registered Aboriginal Heritage Sites in this area. Their names for locations and landmarks are also recorded on local maps, including the map of Murchison House Station. The Nanda people were essential in the establishment of this Station, one of the State’s earliest pastoral stations, established in 1858. The original cottage still stands, alongside the larger historic homestead. The Station’s days as a prosperous pastoral station are long gone, and now its only export consists of feral goats.
As a contemporary visitor I am conscious that as I walk along the sandy creekbed, my footsteps are just the most recent layer of human experience on this ground. The rocks and trees around me have witnessed many others before me. The act of walking is central to my creative practice. The routes of my walks are lines which I use in my artworks, and are a form of mapping my personal experience of a particular moment in time in this particular landscape.
I use frottage to document the river red gums, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, which grow along the water courses. Each year, since 2008, I have made one or two 10 metre-long frottages, using charcoal on calico and interfacing, of different red gums’ branches which grow low to the ground and spread up over the sandy banks of the gully near where I stay. For me this activity is like having a conversation with the tree. I am initiating the conversation by laying the 120 cm wide cloth out along the branch and rubbing the charcoal across it. The resulting impression of the lines and texture of the bark are the tree’s reply.
When installed, the fourteen frottaged lengths are suspended from a high ceiling, and configured to twist and weave amongst each other, like the trees in the gully. Floor- based lights are positioned to highlight the height of the draped frottages. Video of a river red gum’s leaves blowing in a breeze is projected across the suspended lengths and audio of birdsong from the gully brings the sounds of the location into the gallery space. The installation evokes this particular location in the ancient landscape of the Murchison, where the majestic river red gums stand as witnesses to the landscape’s experience.
The twisting and turning form of the branch tells of the large scale events such as floods and droughts, while the grooves and lines on the bark are details from the micro-world that exists within the living tree environment. The grain of the bark of the branches is like a landscape. In small drawings, I have drawn with white charcoal pencil on black surfaces to depict the lines, contours and grooves of the branch, highlighting the landscape-like forms. Some of these drawings, printed onto acetate sheets, become like x-rays, installed on a window to allow sunlight to highlight the contour lines of the landscape within the branch.
As well as working directly with nature on a large scale, in frottaging tree branches, I also work with the environment on a small scale. Sheets of A5 sized cartridge paper carry the random marks and staining of Eucalypt leaves, having been buried in the leaf litter over a 10 day period during which there were heavy rain storms. Each sheet was then perforated with the route of one of my walks, and this perforated line, like footsteps, becomes apparent when placed over a light source.
This environment, its history and its resilience, continues to inspire.
As an artist and historian I am interested in bringing a creative perspective to the layers of information held within a location. I work directly in and with the environment, using charcoal and ink on paper and cloth to document natural forms, and then, in the studio, I employ printmaking, painting and stitching techniques to further develop my response to the location.
The idea of nature as a witness to history underpins my artistic practice. Over 15 years I have enjoyed annual visits to an area along the Murchison River at Murchison House Station near Kalbarri, in mid west Western Australia, 600 km north of Perth. This rugged landscape has formed over 400 million years, and is characterised by red tumblagooda sandstone ridges and outcrops, carved by winding gullies and creeks which feed into the Murchison River. This river travels over 800 km from its arid upper reaches to its mouth at the town of Kalbarri. For most of the time it is a narrow water course, with wide sandy banks, but when cyclones bring heavy rain, the river can turn into a raging force which floods the lower reaches. The water’s force is evident everywhere along the creeks and river, where massive trees lie prone, having been uprooted in floods, and trees which have withstood the current, hold debris within their branches.
The Nanda people lived here, and their presence is still evident in artefacts and location names. There are numerous registered Aboriginal Heritage Sites in this area. Their names for locations and landmarks are also recorded on local maps, including the map of Murchison House Station. The Nanda people were essential in the establishment of this Station, one of the State’s earliest pastoral stations, established in 1858. The original cottage still stands, alongside the larger historic homestead. The Station’s days as a prosperous pastoral station are long gone, and now its only export consists of feral goats.
As a contemporary visitor I am conscious that as I walk along the sandy creekbed, my footsteps are just the most recent layer of human experience on this ground. The rocks and trees around me have witnessed many others before me. The act of walking is central to my creative practice. The routes of my walks are lines which I use in my artworks, and are a form of mapping my personal experience of a particular moment in time in this particular landscape.
I use frottage to document the river red gums, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, which grow along the water courses. Each year, since 2008, I have made one or two 10 metre-long frottages, using charcoal on calico and interfacing, of different red gums’ branches which grow low to the ground and spread up over the sandy banks of the gully near where I stay. For me this activity is like having a conversation with the tree. I am initiating the conversation by laying the 120 cm wide cloth out along the branch and rubbing the charcoal across it. The resulting impression of the lines and texture of the bark are the tree’s reply.
When installed, the fourteen frottaged lengths are suspended from a high ceiling, and configured to twist and weave amongst each other, like the trees in the gully. Floor- based lights are positioned to highlight the height of the draped frottages. Video of a river red gum’s leaves blowing in a breeze is projected across the suspended lengths and audio of birdsong from the gully brings the sounds of the location into the gallery space. The installation evokes this particular location in the ancient landscape of the Murchison, where the majestic river red gums stand as witnesses to the landscape’s experience.
The twisting and turning form of the branch tells of the large scale events such as floods and droughts, while the grooves and lines on the bark are details from the micro-world that exists within the living tree environment. The grain of the bark of the branches is like a landscape. In small drawings, I have drawn with white charcoal pencil on black surfaces to depict the lines, contours and grooves of the branch, highlighting the landscape-like forms. Some of these drawings, printed onto acetate sheets, become like x-rays, installed on a window to allow sunlight to highlight the contour lines of the landscape within the branch.
As well as working directly with nature on a large scale, in frottaging tree branches, I also work with the environment on a small scale. Sheets of A5 sized cartridge paper carry the random marks and staining of Eucalypt leaves, having been buried in the leaf litter over a 10 day period during which there were heavy rain storms. Each sheet was then perforated with the route of one of my walks, and this perforated line, like footsteps, becomes apparent when placed over a light source.
This environment, its history and its resilience, continues to inspire.
