Sitting on the rocks at Gooram Gooram Gong on that last hot Australia Day, doesn’t seem all that long ago, so when I began looking back on the year, I was worried that I mightn’t find much to report on, until with a review in mind I went back to the notes I took away from our meetings or working sessions.
During 2008 The Edge Collective revisited many of the issues that arose out of Palimpsests, while moving on to The Black Range Project’. We have made progress, and yet there have been no clear beginnings and endings, so if anything, it has been a year of transitions.
When we decided to begin work on The Black Range we started to draw up a draft set of principles and soon found that while it was easy to say that landscape was our focus or central concept, and there are some broad parameters around what we do, what makes our work so interesting is that our various processes -- Susan’s use of shibori and dyeing of textiles, Peter’s taking photographs and my responding to images in writing – are fundamentally organic and flexible. We never know exactly what we have until we see the images. Also, there is a complex, inexplicable but essential relationship between what we find in the images that we may or may not have seen at the site itself and what we actually know about it. To interpret or read the images and decide how to present them, we are always working towards understanding what’s hidden within and beneath the surface of a site. It was with this in mind that I went back to reread evolutionary biologists and we’re still investigating the geology of The Range. The wildness and apparent inaccessibility, the rumours and biodiversity that the Range invokes and invites need thorough and careful investigation and quarries are often a rich source of real data about the past.
I’m not keen on labels but the nearest I can come to describing our work is to say that it’s our interpretation of ephemeral land-based art, driven by what we do rather than anyone else’s definition. If readers were to go to the web to see to what extent our work follows similar principles or methods to other ‘land’ or ‘earth’ artists, they would soon realise that we have little in common with them – except for the coincidence that photography is often involved. . . and I think I should leave my foray into art critique at that point]
The light captured by Peter’s camera and my words are ephemeral and even Susan’s textiles which consist of actual substance are ephemeral in the sense that they are not embedded in the land but removed after Peter has taken the photographs.
We also attempt to be ephemeral to the extent that we treat our sites with respect and leave them as we find them, and yet some people might argue that our images – any images for that matter - change the way the land is viewed and that even the light, the memories, the words will become part of how the land is used. Certainly OlegasTruchanas, was one of many artists who intentionally strive to change the way people think of and deal with the land.
More generally, growing concerns about climate change and particularly media exposure have changed many aspects of the way we think about our planet and actually view the surrounding landscape. While many of us would like to see more actual change in the way people treat our environment, I think that we can say with certainty that the language environment has definitely changed. Without directly referencing environmental concerns, we work towards increasing our own understanding and awareness of pressing environmental issues as well as seeking to communicate our concerns to others. Just as importantly, our art is also a celebration of place.
The most significant almost silent and yet constant presence that influences our work, is the long-standing connection of the Taungurong people to Gooram Gooram Gong and The Range. Both sites are situated in the country of which they are the traditional owners.
We will have a break over the next few weeks while we take some time out time to feed the spirit and soul. I will be mulling over some of the questions raised by my websearch into ecopoetics . The assertion that poetry [or one could say art in general] has the potential to operate on the edge of innovative ecological thinking is exciting and daunting. It calls for some rigorous reflection reading and research.
I have yet to report on Peter and friends orchid hunt on Cup Day and Susan’s trips to Sarawak and more recently to Paris to show her film and take part in The International Shibori Symposium. In due course reports will appear on her blog and next year, as she works closer to home The Edge will benefit from her learnings.
[For more info go to Susan’s blog and collected works site for a comment from me on poetry and place www.collectedworks-poetryideas.blogspot.com/
-- meanwhile, I have been working on a text to go with the quarry images and remembering how long it took to do the Palimpsests book.
Almost in spite of myself, I realise that what I have done is to write a kind of Christmas letter so here’s not a Christmas but a summer solstice message :
Be kind to one another
Tread lightly on the earth
Know your flowers
It comes from American poet . Gary Snyder
