bird lab – Stefanie Robinson

Lantern Season is over…for this year

Since returning from the Bird Lab Residency is Sweden I have been deep in lantern land.

First the Lismore Lantern Parade
This year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of this fabulous event.

and then

INTO THE LIGHT – Cycles of Change.
This was the 4th year for INTO THE LIGHT, which started in response to the 2009 Black Saturday fires. Each year we have reflected on the process of healing and with a group of local artists,designed an event in response to where the community is at now.

It is a very special event. I feel privileged to be part of it
This years video is still in process but here are the last 2 years.

Between Land and Sky
The Unfolding Story

And now that lantern season is over
I have time to return to my studio.

This started with a shift from studio 2.14 which has been my home for the last 2 years to Studio 2.26 across the hall. (At River Studios in West Melbourne which is run my City of Melbourne’s Creative Spaces program)

A chance to dust of the dust and re look at everything that i have gathered or done or thought about doing. I now have a wooden floor, 2 white walls and a square space rather than a rectangle.

So i sat in it today
and stared at all the projects
started, played with , begun, thought about
and waiting
waiting
waiting
for me to start, return to , finish, begin , complete, start,
remember

So many threads and ideas
how do they inter link?
Do they inter link?

Is it all one creative journey ?

Or separate threads heading in opposite directions?

Questions

always questions.

So I picked up some clay (my newest thread)
and blocked out the questions
and let my fingers play

Ode to a bicycle

Bird Lab is over
I am back in Melbourne
I have been greeted with cold grey sky’s
rain and a flat battery……

So as i snuggle into the Autumn
I take some till to reflect
and thank the bike that
took me across army fields
and over roads
and tops of hills
to dinner parties and back again……

spring is sprung in Harlosa

Today is a glorious sunny day
Blossoms are blooming
and I am preparing to return to Autumn

so to capture the moment
here is a collection of photos taken
as I have witnessed
spring unveil itself
here in Harlosa….

some of my Bird Lab work….

here’s a few images of the works i have finished in the first 15 days of this residency………

1 day untill the open studio here in Harlosa….!!

something …..

I have been playing with a few new ideas here at Bird Lab.

Layers of paper and frayed fabric.

I’m not quite sure about them yet….

Whether I need to do something else…
(another layer? shellac?)

or
well
something else….

Maybe they would be better on a light box or
in a lantern so you can see the textures of the paper…

there is
something about them i like.. a lot
and something about them isn’t quite right yet…..

(the photos don’t show very well the different textures in the paper back ground… but also a lot of the texture has been lost in the gluing process…)

In a weird contrast to the beauty of this place
I am in
is the military training base just down the road.
It has been a training base for 200 years.
The land it uses to practice on
is also apart of the wild life sanctuary…
or is that the other way round??

Gates Closed…. do not enter we are practicing.

On my 2nd day here i was sent scuttling home
after a tank crossed my path….

today i was joyfully watching the flight of a bird when
yup…
a tank fills the space in the binoculars….

the bird song
often broken by the sound of gun fire.

I am very uneasy with all of this.

I really hate war and being this close to it…
even though it is only practice…
they are still practicing for war…..

rope

When I was coming to Harlosa i was asked if i wanted anything… I asked for rope as this is a material i have been using in Melbourne and sometimes it’s not so easy to find…

I have been a bit over whelmed by the response …rope has been delivered to my door, big thick chunky worn rope.

Its taken me a while to approach the rope, partly because other materials have taken my attention, and partially because my head has been full of what i would do with it in Melbourne… so i have been thinking that i need to wait for the response to emerge from this place that i am in now.

Firstly I worked with the white rope
and this appeared…
in response to seeing the Pendulum Tit nest…

Today i bring it inside the thick brown rope
and start to pull it apart.

It’s interesting to see the parts it is made up of.
4 thick stands and a thinner stand also made up of 3 parts that have been twisted together.

It is thick with dirt, dust and oil. It holds a story of work.
It is rugged and strong, like an old farmer who has spent his life in the fields …..
I think i will have lunch before i start……..

rag rugs

Today i got give a box of hand dyed cotton that has been prepared for making a rag rugs…..

Rag rugs are a traditional rug made here in the early 1800’s by the monarchy, and this tradition slowly trickled down to the farming folk.

Linen, then cotton as it became more common and less expensive , was recycled, torn into strips, and woven into rugs…

Rag Rugs were made to adorn the floors of the important rooms. As the traditional took hold, the rugs began to tell the stories/history of the people, as the cloth used held the memories of its former use.

and now i have a box of hand dyed cotton balls with which to make from….

this is my first response……

Bird Lab begins

Well here i am in Harlosa Sweden…..

Today was spent on a bike riding from bird sanctuary to bird sanctuary via the military training base that acts as a reserve when there isn’t target practice happening…. (Ate breakfast yesterday to the gentle sound of guns firing!!)

Apparently the tanks have played an important environmental task…digging up the earth which brings the insects and flowers to the surface…. so now that they don’t use tanks the military go in with tractors to purposely dig up the land…..

I have become very interested in the sounds that surround me… and have been recording via my IPhone the different calls. This maybe a little to do with the lack of extreme zoom on my camera so i am unable to capture the images I want… But also I love the way birds fill the air with music….

The willow trees here are very very old… and they have been maintained by harsh pruning that create lines of tall cropped trunks through the landscape.

We saw a stork nesting on top of one… and below one of the tree’s was a pile of willow…so i have found some materials to begin the first nest/basket…..