Category Archives: art, theatre

a new home

last Thursday

tsunami 2 was presented to

the new principal of the school in Minami Sanruki that i visited 2 years ago.

This school no longer has a school.
The buildings have gone…
although the GPS in the hire car says it is still there

as it does with many locations

ghosts hovering in a virtual landscape

Instead this school shares the buildings with another school.
next year the school itself will be merged with other schools.

What makes a school? Its buildings or its teachers and students?

anyway….

i presented tsunami 2 to the new principal…

explaining that it had been made by rope that i had found on my last visit, and the meaning behind the use of the gold-colored/copper wire etc…
(see earlier posts for more detail)

he said

he understood my thinking

(how reassuring as i was wondering if it was a crazy weird thing to be doing…)

and he hoped his school would be reborn

and thank you for thinking of us for the past 2 years……

no photos
just words
mind pictures
special moments
strange to wonder how and where and if this little nest hangs
now

Tsunami 1 and 2

Three years ago i went to Minima Sanruki, a small village on the east coast of Japan, with Polyglot Theatre.
This village had stood in the way of a giant wave.

(You can read more about that visit here)

At the time i picked up a piece of black rope,
a remnant of a place, a time, an event.
and bought it back with me.

On reflecting on my experience 
I wove
what i called 
Tsunami.

Image

 

In 5 days i will be returning to Minami Sanruki
again with Polylgot

I was sitting in my studio starring at the piece of rope that was left
wondering what this visit will be, how will things have change, or will they have
and many more questions about the upcoming visit

and in these thoughts i picked up the rope, and some copper wire
and was reminded of the Japanese art of Kinsukuroi (or Kintsugi)

Image

 

 

and i start to weave a nest mended with gold
The weave was tighter, stronger than the first,
the roof rebulit
a new life
still echoing with the history, the journey…….

Image

If only rebuilding
a home
a community
a future

was as simple as twisting some found rope and reclaimed copper……..

 

 

Forest……..

Its been a month (or so)
since Forest was installed iIn the Little Red Train at Ceres Environment Park…..

All in all it was a success.

A friend suggested that the measure of success was… did you like it in the space?
Yes

and

Would you do it again…
Yes

below are a few of my favourite images
For more images and comments go to….. FOREST

Forest_068

 

 

Standing in the space and just… listening
beautiful Stef!
                     (Mischa)

 

 

 

 

P4193991

A wonderful travelling journey
woven and dense
with memory and transience
I think of the train
clicketty clack
of my own journey’s and restlessness
and the constructions i have about settling in one place
so much movement woven into each empty nest
Extra ordinary
Thank you

 

Forest_030Forest_001

Forest

is an installation of nests and Textured Paper Drops

that i am currently building in the Little Red Train at CERES Environment Part in
East Brunswick , Melbourne.
flyer forest

This installation has evolved out of 4 years of gentle development that started in the Solo Residency I undertook at Victoria University.

I thought it was going to be a dance piece
a textural poem that moved through the seasons telling a story of a tree and the bird woman who weaves nests…..

but it seems it is an installation.
the tree is woven through the space and will be echoed in the paper drops,
the bird woman it seems is me,

I still hope to make movement for it and create a performance in the Forest.

When i look back through my books, my ideas about fragility, weaving, nests, seasons, growth and death all have accumulated in this work

It’s exciting to see and feel this.
The art has taken me on its journey..
and .my first solo exhibition.

I am having so much fun at the moment weaving the roof of the train in cane.
The weaving started as a mechanism to hang the paper and nests from, but it has taken over and become a thing in its self, and slowly the train transforms….

IMG_1056 IMG_1057 IMG_1052 IMG_1050 IMG_1049
IMG_1067 IMG_1066 IMG_1061 IMG_1063

i am looking forward to beginning to hang the paper and the nests……

I would like to do this again……
in another gallery…
in another city…..
on another country……

the meditation of doing

Today my head is full of
how to

why to

what to

who to do it with

why

how

what

why

and this continues
as the energy waxes and wanes

and

confidence grows and dissipates
with every success and failure

and

i finally sit
pick up the needle and rope
and start

sewing tight stitches
tighter than usual
neat precise stitches
that turn a rope found
into a nest bound

and to each stitch is attached  one of these thoughts and questions

and i find
some of the whys disappear as i remember why
and
some of the hows get answered

and  others possibly pruned
although i’m yet to draw the knife across them

but mostly the angst settles
the teeth stop grinding
the mind stops whirling

and sometimes

my mind
simply goes blank
as my hands do the work
and it all becomes peaceful
and i remember why
and some of the hows get answered…………………..

Image

The Runaway

Todays Nest……..

On my walk out on the breakwater in search of
washed up bits and things
to weave with

i found this time thick chunky rope

IMG_0894

which made me think that a small boat (or maybe even a big one)

had broken its moors

and runaway

out to the ocean
to roam and explore

escaping the wealth, glass and bad taste
that the surrounding shores it was tied to
have become
So i gathered up these torn remnants
of a brave adventure
and
scurried back to my studio
to twist and sew and wind and bend
them
into

The Runaway
IMG_0897
a nest

INTO THE LIGHT-The Unfolding Story

was held on the 1st of September at the Whittlesea Showgrounds
in Whittlesea,  Victoria.

In follow up to last years event…. INTO THE LIGHT-The Unfolding Story was made up of a   lantern parade with 12 primary schools from the Whittlesea, Kinglake, Flowerdale and Nillimbick Communities,
a spiral,
video projections that filled the side of the cattleshed,
a 30 meter shadow play

and so much more……..

Here is the video of the night……..

i stood in the studio

for the first time
in a long time

I stopped and stood in the studio
instead of
passing through
on my way from brushing teeth
to sleep

I stood

thinking i was only going to stand
and feel the breath  of the space
upon my skin

and to
think
about maybe one day soon

But the breath turned to a breeze

and

before i knew
a night dance had begun
moving me through space
folding, falling, expanding, contracting
a hidden story
emerging from muscles and bone

relief flooded me
like when on old friend
you thought you would never see again

returns

reconnecting

How quickly a couple of months can go by

a crazy time filled with work, lanterns, children, paper and cello-tape

A time when personal projects/ my practice has been put on hold and the studio gathers dust and i lose track of what it was that i was doing and why i was doing it.

But….. my work is creative, and i am earning a living from it and quite possibly this too is “My Practice”

and
as October turns from empty
a space i was relishing as a time to return to ‘My Practice’

into overwhelming
as i try once again to pack all of the wonderful offers into my diary
and once again i surrender the idea of studio time….

I  do take the time to be thankful for the full diary,
and to reflect on what it means to work as an artist
and the compromises that entails…….
but i wonder (with a longing) how and when i return to that other project
The one that requires me to say no to income

and how i maintain the energy and focus to “do everything”……..
and if i really mean it when i say “never again” to doing events……

So
what have i been doing??………….

A Cecil st Fundraiser….. downstairs

A Paper Planet …. in Sydney

A community lantern parade
(12 schools + community groups etc….) in Whittlesea

A sticky maze……. in Newman
(that’s in the North of  Western Australia…a mining town in the out back…. ok i know this needs its own update…..actually they all do but ……)

which  brings that 10 weeks to a beautiful close

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The Lismore Lantern Parade

was last weekend

It was fantastic
we were blessed with a week of beautiful sunny weather.

The parade continues to grow each year, although I’m hoping at 2000 people it has reached capacity!!

This year i was only in Lismore for a week, thankfully i had some awesome people helping me to pull the parade together ……..

heres a link to some of the media
echo net daily
northernstar
and nastsky’s very beautiful photos

Im in there carrying a fiery dragonfly…. my treat for managing the parade…. it can’t be all work…..