Tag Archives: nests

Contained

In January I took up a fellow artists offer to make an installation in a shipping container.

WildWildGoose Contained was a 3 month residency by Dagmara in 2 shipping containers next to the Maribrynong Rver in Footscray (Melbourne)
Check put the other work that was created in this space on the Facebook page Wildwildgoosecontained

On the overpass bridge next to the container are two enormous pasted up photos of Uncle Larry, gently watching over us, and those who pass by.

Across the river
a depot of shipping containers
a 24 hour flow of trucks and cranes

Next to us
a freight train line
a constant stream of ‘goods’ coming and going

Beside us
The river
rising and falling with the tide
heading always to the sea
On that sea
containers travelling to and from the port

And woven through this landscape
conversations
about migration
about  refugees
about things

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Already hanging in the space was Dagmara’s net with folded boats.
I added a shipping rope curled into a nest with the end of the rope stretched across the wall.

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tributaries feeding a river
branches of a tree
A road map

Then the mermaid. jumped in…IMG_2068

On the last day i invited 5 performers to come and explore the work….

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We created a 1 hour rolling improvisation, moving in and out of the container.
(Video to come!!)

(Black and White Photographs by Dagmara @ wildwildgoose.com )

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….!!

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.

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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…

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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……..

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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…..

Willow Tree Pruned

 

 

 

 

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.

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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)

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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…….

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If only rebuilding
a home
a community
a future

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

 

 

a gardening day

yesterday

I pulled up some bricks
from the front of the studio i live in

to make room for more garden

In the process old tree roots were removed,
as was the min that had established itself through the small garden
that was there already.

and then
i wove them into this……..

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a nest
a place where new things are given birth too

Weaving the mint was great
a minty smell released
as i twisted and pulled at the roots
adding a freshness
and a sensualness to the task

then i planted
some bulbs into the new garden…..
a touch too late but fingers crossed

and jumped around in a NIA class
to get some energy moving
through this wintry stiff body of mine…..

and it all feels just a bit better
than it did
with a touch of possibility
planted
ready for spring