project anywhere (2019)

Collaboration with Annelies Jahn

This work was part of a collaborative proposal between artist Annelies Jahn and myself and originally submitted to the international competition Project Anywhere. Our proposal aimed to build on existing knowledge in the field of Earth Art within the contemporary context of the Anthropocene. We hoped to do this by making benign interventions within the natural world, specifically on a case study bush site on Gundungurra and Tharawal people’s land. As a collaboration of two artists, we documented these gestural artworks in the landscape and in turn planned to transport iterations and/ or remnants of these bush installations, back into a gallery context. This is an ongoing project and as it has developed, we have realised a core concern: How do we as artists undertake this type of work in a country that has been colonised? How do we come to be at ease in a land that Indigenous Australians have cared for practically and spiritually for many thousands of years? Hence our methodology has evolved; we now work in conjunction and in consultation with Indigenous custodians, including an Indigenous nursery, and are working toward an exhibition in mid 2021. Our overarching concern remains society’s increasing alienation from the natural world. The resulting works explore ways to heighten people’s sensitivity to and awareness of the natural world, particularly through immersive installations.