Blake Gibson — Australia Drawings

Alright, guess it's time for me to step to the plate. My artistic exploration in Australia involved solitary walks into the bush, wilderness, woods...whatever you want to call it. I had been working on small-scale pen and ink drawings based on the natural world prior to my leaving for Australia. I did not know how or if this process would find a place in my work in Australia. But I brought a small pad of paper and pens with me, and most of the time these were the only art materials I carried on my walks.

The works are diminutive and minimal — not Minimalist, that's something different. But they are minimal to me. I was interested in objects or views that had an intriguing appearance, but which also would be difficult to draw convincingly without also including information about their context. So, I drew them by themselves, without much information at all about the area around them. They are de-contextualized (which I sometimes accomplished by doing stuff to the drawings later). Fundamentally, these works came from thoughts about my disconnection from the wilderness and my being with that disconnection alone in the wilderness and quiet for extended amounts of time.

Below are images of some of these 9"x11 1/2" drawings. I've included a couple of details in the mix as well....

Heike Qualitz

Another of our new Australian friends I've been meaning to profile... She always seemed to have her camera and tripod around, and it's a good thing. Many of these photos came from circumstances being what they were and people doing what they do. The images below represent earlier sculptural work, and art photography. Images from Camp Jigamy, including art photos and "highlights" of us I put in the post just prior to this one. Heike sent me a little background info, which I'll relay here.

saturday night on lake mokoan was a work from a field studies trip in 2009. lake mokoan was a wetland in northern victoria that was dammed for a few decades forming a bit of a water feature and fostering recreational sports and was then decommissioned and returned to a wetland a few years back. inside the fuel drum (from a boat motor) is a recording i took (on a sat nite...) of the varied and rich life on the lake - frogs & birds galore and at close inspection a plane overhead. i liked the idea of spatial information and illusion relayed through sound.

solei revisited was made for a group show earlier this year titled solar and celebrating the installation of about 120 solar panels onto the roof of the gallery... the video (a reversed and looped abstraction of a fleeting moment i happened to capture on camera whilst being on exchange in berlin in 2008. its the slanting spring sun hitting a metal chair leg and forming concentric rings around it - a contracting and expanding creature) is projected onto a slowly rotating disc reminiscent of the wooden floor i first witnessed it on, the angle of the disc is referencing the tilt of the earth (~23.4 degrees) the combo of slowly changing image and rotating disc has a peculiar effect too...

Davidson Beach

from Journeys of a Wedding Dress

from Journeys of a Wedding Dress

from Journeys of a Wedding Dress

from Journeys of a Wedding Dress

Nightshade

Saturday Night on Lake Mokoan

Solei Revisited

Solei Revisited (detail)

Solei Revisited (detail)

Heike Qualitz Jigamy Photos

Jigamy Friday Night

Jigamy Friday Night

Jigamy Friday Night

Jigamy Friday Night

Taming the Chi

Yoshimi

Caroline Huf — Back to the Mallee

Here's a work in progress from one of the Australian artists we had the pleasure to meet and spend time with at Calperum Station. Her process is stop motion photography, which has a physicality often lacking in other moving image processes. I think her work has a great sense of play to it as well. Enjoy!


back to the mallee from Caroline Huf on Vimeo.

John Reid — Walking the Solar System, Pt. 2

The statement below from John Reid and a short video of his performance 'Force of Habit' from 2000 sheds more light on his work shown in the previous post (his video from Kioloa can be found there as well).

 

Friday 3 June Late afternoon: The walk onto the rock platform skirting Snapper Point near Kioloa, NSW, is a disorientating sensory experience. The exposed and slightly off-kilter Permian sediments form the headland on one side and, on the other, is the sizeable rolling swell of the Tasman Sea. It brought to mind a performance work that I did in 2000 titled, ‘Force of Habit’ (see Video 01, the only visual compilation to exist). In it my body is positioned horizontally on a gallery plynth. Armed with a briefcase, I assume a posture as if I’m walking to work. By virtue of being at odds with the force of gravity my limbs fatigue in a few minutes, the walking pose collapses and the artwork concludes. The performance derived some formal dramatic tension from the body being under physiological stress. Conceptually, however, the work was in dialogue with Australian artist, Stelarc, and his thesis that the brain and technology are in a mutinous relationship against the rest of the body in order to attain gravitational escape velocity.

John Reid — Walking the Solar System

Those of us from the Land Arts program who came to Australia owe a lot to John Reid, so it is a real honor to be able to show some of his work on this blog. During the month of June, Mr. Reid focused his time on the body of work tentatively titled, "Walking the Solar System." Below is a brief statement about his working process along with images and a video from the series. The video is the one he showed us at Kioloa, which I wrote about in my post "Report from Kioloa."

The idea of imaging the human figure going about everyday life (ie walking to work) as a body in the solar system began with the 2002 performance, 'Force of Habit.' A similar work was performed in 2005. In 2011, several performances were undertaken in the field for the video camera with the production assistance of Bill Gilbert and Frank Thirion. The disconnect between the figure and the ground raises for consideration the locus of the figure orbiting about the sun intersecting with a particular place that is at that point in space but at another orientation and point in time. At issue for the final resolution of these recent works is whether to show only still photographs of ‘the walks’, or only the video of ‘the walks’, which ones of either, and to decide on a title as an entrée to the contemplation of the central idea.

Bill Gilbert — Walking Constellations and Grids

Not enough can be said about Bill Gilbert, co-founder and director of the Land Arts of the American West program at the University of New Mexico. The success of Land Arts has helped generate the Art & Ecology area at UNM and continues to play a significant role for place-based art in the southwest.

In Australia, Gilbert had a unique opportunity to focus on his own projects, which are based on the physical act of walking as a means of experiencing place. Below is Bill in his own words about his work in Australia, along with working images

For each map I use an arbitrary system of navigation to subvert my conscious mind and have a direct encounter with the surface of the planet. In that sense my walking is more in line with the Situationists than the Brits (Long & Fulton): sort of a wilderness Derive. I worked on two series in AU both using absurd systems to determine my paths. At Calperum, I did an Australian version of my "attempts to walk the grid." I've now done them in Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas (in the states) and Mongolia and Japan. The ground being fairly flat and obstacles few and far between. I came pretty close this time.

At Kioloa, Jigamy and Calperum I did walks in which I used constellations from the southern Hemisphere's night sky to navigate my way across the land. At Kioloa, I followed Scorpio from coast to rain forest, beach to thicket. This walk will be paired with another Scorpio walk completed at the San Rafael Swell, UT in Land Arts, mesa to river bottom. At Jigamy, I traced Lepsus on the forest floor in honor of the year of the hare and AU's problem with rabbit populations. At Calperum, I walked Hercules through the Mallee Woodlands and met a charming, if flustered, Emu. This walk will be matched with another Hercules path I followed at Otero Mesa, NM again with the Land Arts program.

My current struggle is with how best to translate the experiences to the gallery and/or web. In addition to the maps, I am playing with photos, sound recordings, and plant identification info.

Grid near Calperum Station, SA, Australia

Scorpio South— Kioloa, NSW, Australia

Scorpio North — San Rafael Swell, Utah, USA

Lepsus walking points

Lepsus —between Pambula Lake and the Tasman Sea

Hercules South points

Hercules South in the mallee woodlands in South Australia

Joseph Mougel — Bellbirds

Brother Joseph has done some terrific work in Australia. One work he began fairly early on was inspired by the Bellbirds, whose unique "ping" call we all encountered at one point or another on the Far South Coast (specifically, at our first field location at Pambula Lake, near the town of Eden). The work has developed into a sound installation, utilizing paper coffee cups collected throughout our travels in Australia. Below is Joseph's statement, along with his recording of the Bellbird calls and supporting images.

Bellbirds

Bell Miners live in communal groups in the forests of southeastern Australia. They establish territories in which they feed on the honeydew secretions of insects that, in turn, feed on eucalyptus sap. Many of the forests are managed by the timber industry, which periodically thins sick, small, or malformed trees from the ecosystem. Due to the culling of trees, the forest fails to support the diversity of insect and animal life that a mature forest would normally sustain.

As trees are removed from the forest, the timber industry ships them to Japan to be processed into paper, which then returns to Australia in the form of consumer goods.

Bellbirds recreates the birds’ natural habitat through a collection of coffee cups and sound installation, which will ultimately allow for audience interaction with the piece. The variously branded cups are evidence of the diversity of businesses offering society caffeinated beverages, while the paper from which the cups are made suggests the plethora of trees absent from the forest. A recording of the bird’s intermittent calls emanates from the cups. As viewers enter the space, they trigger the birds to defend their forest from intruders, leading to a crescendo of sound. The installation maintains the frequency and intensity of the bird calls for the period of time that the viewers remain in front of the piece, only returning to the original intervals of bird calls and silence after the audience has left the immediate area.

6/26-28 Final Days

The field portions of our Australian journey now at an end, we spent the last few days back in Canberra at the ANU School of Art (again...they have flats on site for use by artists in residence!!!). We met up again with some of our new Australian friends and generally just tried to bring closure to the whole experience. See album.

My post about our following night back in Sydney can be found here.

As I bring my account of our time in Australia to a close, I know that for those of us lucky enough to have participated in this extraordinary opportunity, it will continue to inform our work indefinitely. I will continue to post updates on the development of work started in Australia as we work toward the October show at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery, where our work will be shown alongside Field Studies artists with the Eden Project. Currently, works in progress from Land Arts and Field Studies artists are on exhibition at the ANU School of Art in a show entitled, "Expression of Intent."

6/24-25 Bonfire...Then Back to Canberra

On our last full day at Calperum Station, I helped Cedra document work she was doing in the field. Most of the photos were taken on her camera and will be used to create paintings. I have a few preliminary photos (and included 2 related drawings in this photo set). This particular piece was inspired by tiny lime-green melons, which grow naturally in the area. Stay tuned for finished paintings...and all of our completed projects from work started in Australia.

Later that evening we went to a pub and got Joseph some (SURPRISE!) balloons for his belated birthday (he got sick on the actual day...and of course didn't want to advertise it was his birthday anyway. Luckily Cedra remembered!). Back at camp, Bryn set fire to his "Wicker Man" which slowly burned away in the mesmerizing flames.

The field portion of the trip now completed, we set out the next morning, June 25, for Canberra. Along the way we had a group photo taken at the border between the Shire of Hay (say Ha-aaaay!) and the Shire of Wakool (say Way COOL!). Joseph provided the opportunity for the full group photo, which also made for fun photos of him trying to beat his timer with balloons in hand. Then Liz rolled in the grasses to prove that, even though it was actually full of spurs and prickly things, it looked so soft from a distance that it made her want to roll around in it. Kudos to you, Liz. Then we came across a bizarre burning field (likely intentional). Still don't know the full story with this one... Enjoy.

Cedra Wood — Journal Project

Here's a look at some work in progress from one of the Land Arts alums here in Australia, Cedra Wood. At UNM, Cedra made some stunning paintings based on photos from her Land Arts experience and other staged scenes, usually in outdoor settings. In Australia, she continued in this vein, placing herself in the role of performer on several occasions for photos that will be used as source material for paintings.

In addition to this ongoing project, one of Cedra's main projects in Australia is to fill the pages of a Never Ending Story-style book with writing and images based on her Australian experiences. The book itself looks medieval — it is romantic and intimidating at the same time. And toting this thing around must have been a constant reminder of her commitment. Below is a statement from Cedra about the project. The final image below is the journal used as a prop in her last performance role at Calperum.

Both the beauty and disadvantage of a journey like this is that so much happens every day, and you're whirled through a thousand successive moments that you want to remember in crystalline detail. Photographs help--and believe me, I took tons of them (O bless the digital age), many of which will serve as visual references for paintings in the studio later--but just as important to me was to keep a written and hand-drawn record of the events, thoughts, ideas, performances, and conversations that occurred. So often during travel, brains and lives expand in significant ways, and I wanted to remember how and why mine did, this time.