The act of art

In the middle of my last essay writing spell, I had the pleasure of attending a talk given by Francois Davin about his site specific visual arts practice. He is French and had been living in Queensland for the last few years and detoured to the south west on his way back home. His current work arose out of a desire to put the 'act of art' back into arts practice. This is best understood in that people look at the 'object' made by the artist, but the artist lives in the 'act'. As I understand it, Davin chooses to bring the act of making art to the forefront.

 Feeding 2006, Northcliffe 

In creating his work he considers the history of the place, the geology or physical shape, a space for imagination, and the people living in the place. What excited me most about his work was his engagement with communities as part of his work. He always meets with the local people before starting to work, even though everything might be teed up with landowners beforehand, to get the O.K.

In 1990, the forest in Val-sans-Retour in Brittany, burned for five days. It was the legendary home of Morgan le Fey, King Arthur's half sister. Davin created the work in tribute to the world wide response to save the forest, and  in response to the Arthurian legends associated with the place. All the work was done with no money changing hands and the villagers looked after him while he was working on site. Davin took one of the burned chestnut trees, cleaned, prepared and gilded it with the help of an army of volunteer gilders, then returned and mounted it in the forest with the other blackened stumps. The work is a symbol of the immortality of dreams of people of goodwill. The branches are symbolic of the antlers of stags that led the knights through the enchanted forests.

The Gold of Broceliande, 1991, Valley of no Return, Brittany

An example he gave - the people of a village were invited to invent a legend about 'what happened when the sky fell down? - and the people made up stories and the artwork came out of that.

Another exciting project  - a group of artists were individually hosted in a village for 15 days - and they made work in the village based on their experiences there - what they saw, heard, personal stories, history, legends, whatever - it sounds like a fantastic idea - and the village hosts saw artists and lived with 'art in action'.

Something similar - Artists on Wheels - a play on Meals on Wheels, but an artist lived with the elderly for a short period - got to know them and then they did something together - based on something important to or about the older person. So it nourished the artist, their host and the community.

So the art making was collaborative, shared, a dialogue, for pleasure, and the act of art was not so much about the creation of an object, but a gift for others. I was thoroughly inspired by his talk and really want to get back into creativity - as soon as my study is finished ...

Francois being introduced by Vivienne, Denmark Arts

Here is a link to Artists in Nature International Network.

Re-imagining the land

One of the most notable images of early Albany is the Panoramic View of King George's Sound, Part of the Colony of Swan River, a well known hand coloured etching and aquatint from 1834. It was created from sketches by Lieutenant Robert Dale and etched by Robert Havell. Dale was stationed at King George's Sound in early 1832, six years after the English commenced a colony there. This section of the view shows Lake Seppings and Oyster Harbour in the distance. On the left of the drawing is the cleared and neatly plowed square of land on the government's Strawberry Hill farm.

The view today from a similar vantage point

The foreground on the top of Mt Clarence is now very overgrown - that shrubbery in the foreground is a good three to four metres high. On the day I took this photograph there was a bronzewing pigeon scratching in the undergrowth like a tiny chook - something I've never noticed them doing before.

In the panorama by Dale/Havell the foreground has a number of small herbaceous plants indicative of fairly open ground, with bigger shrubbery further down the hill. However all the land on the lower plains near the lakes is grassland interspersed with clumps of trees. For the Aborigines it would have provided good feed for kangaroos and made hunting that much easier. The grasslands were managed with regular burning to keep the bush at bay.  Edge habitats are usually regarded as being more species rich than each of the individual habitats, so that makes good sense too.

It is strange how the present day golf course imitates the original landscape as managed by the Aborigines before colonisation. There must be something about a parkland cleared landscape that is pleasing to our psyche.  For the golfers I suppose it is more of a challenge having the fairways edged by a good bit of rough.

I don't know if the tall Kingias, shown in the centre of the drawing, would have actually been there or were placed in the drawing because they represented the 'exotic'.

I can say there are smaller Kingia's still growing near the top of the hill, but they are crowded out by the thick and tall vegetation that has grown up around them. It must be quite a while since a fire went through; they have long skirts hanging down from the top.

Believe it or not there is a Kingia growing in this tangle of shrubbery - catching the sunlight in the middle ground.

Here is a botanical illustration of Kingia australis, originally published in 1827 as part of Captain Phillip King's book on his travels mapping the coasts of Australia from 1818 to 1822. The engraving is by J. Curtis.











Today, there are a few big old trees growing on the hill, all very spreadeagled, unlike the younger trees that are growing closely together and straight up. In their youth they must have had a lot less competition for space and light to enable them to grow wide rather than up. Perhaps a bit of being sculpted by the wind too - something which isn't a problem today, the bush is so dense.




I find it very interesting, looking and comparing the past and the present, and trying to image what it was really like back then. In some ways it is like seeing the landscape, and ways of managing it, with totally new eyes. It  certainly raises a lot of questions for me about how one 'chooses' just what is the 'right' ecological landscape.

Link to National Library of Australia
Link to Gutenberg Phillip King's book.

in the forest

Towering trunks

Pale stillness filtered green

Shrike thrush

Notes the air

tiger, tiger

I was out walking, enjoying the early warmth of a spring morning, with Miske on a zig zag trail of overnight scents.   Roos and ducks and that secret world that only dogs know. A wattle bird suddenly dived in front of me. With a whoosh and a sharp clack of it's beak. A little closer. Whoosh and clack!

I pulled up and looked closely in the grass. Called Miske to my side. Yep. A lovely big tiger, shining black with golden scales gleaming from underneath and emerging in faint stripes up its side. Whoosh and clack!

With the sun so warm, and the snake so big, and the wattle bird so small, he wasn't going anywhere. I went back for my camera, stepped a little closer for a photo, he still stayed put. Whoosh and clack! I jumped, totally forgetting about the bird in my concentration. The bird flew away, no doubt it has a nest in the nearby trees.

It reminded me that last year I had come across a couple of magpies on the ground, within fifty metres of the same spot, harassing a tiger snake. They were calling angrily and hopping in and away, and snapping their beaks. The snake was as immovable as a rock, determined to catch the warmth of the sun while it could. I wouldn't mind betting it was the same tiger.

Dancing, drums and drills

Matthew Flinders surveyed the shores of Australia in the ship the Investigator, and was anchored in King George's Sound in December 1801 through to early January1802 before any British occupation of the area. He published a journal of his travels A Voyage to Terra Australis in two volumes which I found as an ebook from Gutenberg. It is a boon being able to access books like this so easily. I am actually investigating representations of the environment and vegetation, but occasionally other things jump out at me.

Anyway, I was fascinated by his account of  Wednesday 30 December 1801:

On the 30th, our wooding and watering of the ship were completed, the rigging was refitted, the sails repaired and bent, and the ship unmoored. Our friends the natives continued to visit us; and the old man with several others being at the tents this morning, I ordered the party of marines on shore to be exercised in their presence. 

The red coats and white crossed belts were greatly admired, having some resemblance to their own manner of ornamenting themselves; and the drum, but particularly the fife, excited their astonishment; but when they saw these beautiful red-and-white men, with their bright muskets, drawn up in a line, they absolutely screamed with delight; nor were their wild gestures and vociferation to be silenced but by commencing the exercise, to which they paid most earnest and silent attention. Several of them moved their hands involuntarily, according to the motions; and the old man placed himself at the end of the rank, with a short staff in his hand, which he shouldered presented, grounded as did the marines their muskets.

Drawing by an Aboriginal of the Kingston Tribe S.A.
from John Fairfax Conigrave, Adelaide, 1886.

Charles Darwin was in King George Sound in February 1836 and did not enjoy his time there at all; the summer heat, coarse vegetation and sandy ground, was probably too much for him. In his book The Voyage of the 'Beagle' he described a corroboree he witnessed while there. Here is an edited version:

A large tribe of natives, called the White Cockatoo men, happened to pay the settlement a visit while we were there. These men, as well as those of the tribe belonging to King George's Sound ... were persuaded to hold a "corrobery," or great dancing party. As soon as it grew dark, small fires were lighted, and the men commenced their toilet, which consisted in painting themselves white in spots and lines. As soon as all was ready, large fires were kept blazing, round which the women and children were collected as spectators; the Cockatoo and King George's men formed two distinct parties and generally danced in answer to each other. 

Engraving by J. Neill from Edward John Eyre, 1845

The dancing consisted in their running either sideways or in Indian file into an open space, and stamping the ground with great force as they marched together. Their heavy footsteps were accompanied by a kind of grunt, by beating their clubs and spears together ... In another dance, one man imitated the movements of a kangaroo grazing in the woods, whilst a second crawled up, and pretended to spear him. When both tribes mingled in the dance, the ground trembled with the heaviness of their steps, and the air resounded with their wild cries. Every one appeared in high spirits ... and so perfectly at their ease. After the dancing was over, the whole party formed a great circle on the ground, and the boiled rice and sugar was distributed, to the delight of all.

The visual parallels between the marine drills and corroborees were not lost on either Flinders or the Aboriginal people. Unfortunately the marine uniforms would soon come to represent negative attributes like  power, authority, retribution and an alien system of law.

Untitled tryptic by Gordon Syron, National Museum of Australia, Canberra

The last word on redcoats doing drill must go to Gordon Syron who plays with the way history has traditionally been visualised. He is a political artist who identifies as Aboriginal. He uses 'satire and raw imagery to send a message that Australian History has left out the Aboriginal people and their stories'. In his art he often 'turns around the picture' by doing things like portraying Aboriginal people in redcoats and black boots and reversing other historical Aboriginal and white roles, forcing the viewer to reconsider history.

Link to Syron's website here.  

All images sourced from the internet.