installation – Stefanie Robinson

Forest

Installed in an old train at Ceres Environment Park, Brunswick, Melbourne in 2013.

Sound design by Glen Walton.

A cane nest was first woven through the roof and walls of the Train.

Layered drops of different textured and weighted papers were installed ,creating a paper forest. Small nests woven form rope were then layered through this. Sound was then added.

What happens if the strands of self are woven around a dream ….and the dream dies?

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in your soul….. (Emily Dickenson)

Forest is an exploration into fragility, the strength and beauty in the fragile and the fragility of the human spirit.

Nests have been woven from rope found on the various journeys I have taken. Each nest has its own story stemming from the place the rope was found and the shape it wanted to make. For example, ‘Tsunami’ has been woven from a piece of rope I found when in Japan with Polyglot Theatre at Minima Sanruki, and ‘Towts Road’ from wire left after a tyre was burnt in the Black Saturday fires. Not all the nests have such potent stories as these, but they all hold a story of a journey, an experience and a transformation. When hung with the paper drops they create a delicate world layered with stories. The nests are empty, but they resonate with memory and story.

The installation is embed in an old train, itself resonating with memories of journeys taken and filled with stories of passengers past.

Thank you
Glen Walton for the soundscape
Polyglot for the speakers
Richard Vabre for tweaking the lights and lending me stuff

“Took me to another world, loved seeing the birds through the window…”

“I love it…like a wondrous magical world – new vistas reveal themselves. A fest for the eyes and ears”

“Amazing concept of weaving”

“The atmosphere creates a complex awareness of sub conscious thoughts. Nice work.”

“We loved this! all the nests were like jellyfish in a kelp forest”

“Wondrous! The creaking floor reminded me of gums creaking in the wind. I wondered if I would find eggs or birds. Feels of the sky, sea and forest.”

Shimmering Ball of Light

Created for the Werribee Open Range Zoo’s 2018/19 Summer program in collaboration with Mike Brady form The Gents Australia. We responded to the weird but true fact that sardines form shimmering balls of light to protect themselves from predators.

Over 500 individual sardines were cut out by hand , etched and attached to a cane structure, which was then installed over a footpath within the Werribee Zoo for the three months of summer.

Nest

An installation of Rope and Clay

Rubicon ARI,
Queensbury St
Melbourne
August 2016

A Review …

“Very cool to drop in on Stefanie Robinsons installation at Rubicon ARI today……we walk into a white space, walls , floor and ceiling . Hanging from the roof detritus ropes, sun worn ,ocean swept , sometimes unravelled and frayed . At intermittent points the ropes flair out into beautifully woven nests before being drawn back to follow gravity and continue to the floor where some coil , frayed ends tickle the floor, a minute nest, the essence of intimacy and well being , nestles in the fraying…Where rope meets floor a heaviness of clay nests ground it all and their weight and earthiness are such a wonderful counterpoint to the lightness of the suspended elements of the work. Roughly modelled and fired their earth colour combined with the subtle hues of ropes, hemp and the weaving create this exquisite and reflective environment….I just sat down and dreamed away. you can touch !….Texture ! I moved through and just a gentle bump to set it all in slight motion and the weight of the earth elements holding us firm. Anyway I think it’s really bloody groovy and quite literally hangs together really well…twenty stars ! 309 Queensberry street, We’d to Sat…12 to 5 PM, until 31 St August…oh and it’s a side entrance around the corner.”
Simon Fisher

Please Touch

During the installation of this work I had been determined to place the clay nests on the wall, as I had originally imagined them. But it just didn’t work.(I really did keep trying to make it work!!)
I finally allowed myself to listen to both the work, and my friends, whose advice I had asked for and placed all of the nests on the floor.

In the action of doing this, Paul Blackman and I discussed how lovely it was to hold them.

The clay nests have a warmth about them.

From this we decided to invite the audience to

Pick up a ceramic nest
And hold it in your hands

Take a moment to feel its weight
Its shape, its purpose

Then place it back in the space

Wherever you like…

I am very excited about this discovery. I love that the viewer is invited to engage with the work. That they can place themselves in it and experience it. I love that the gallery space and the work loses its preciousness; nests may get broken. (One did, but that one fell off the wall in the set up!!) Mostly I love that the work could be experienced sensually and kinaesthetically. It became about having an experience rather than about a concept.

Maybe its my dance and theatre background influencing my work, a desire to break down the fourth wall…maybe its my community arts practice and a desire to connect with people, maybe it was easier to let the audience design the space…it was certainly interesting and delightful to witness the flow of the nests through the space.