Emergence

In the far back corner of Gundaroo Common is a stand of remnant forest.  In the shadows of these trees a mark is made, the shadow responds and the dance begins.   The tree becomes a matrix and helps to develop forms and images.  The paper becomes a membrane over the ground, responding to the pressures from above and below.  Events and people leave traces on the land and the paper reveals and erases glimpses of the past and a possible future.  The play between black and white, mark and surface, figure and ground becomes a source of revelation. 

These are the first works in an ongoing series with a working title of 80 x 80's.  They started as full sheets of Arches paper (120 x 80 cm) that I regularly took out on to Gundaroo Common.  The paper would be soaked in a dam and drawn on with Sumi ink, often following the shadows on the land and being influenced by the structure of the land below. 
As the paper was repeatedly taken back to the common over time, it would accrue the detritus of the common, along with dirt, charcoal and cow manure.  Eventually I tore the paper down to 80 x 80 cm with the remnant becoming another series titled 40 x 40.  I was addressing the constant landscape / portrait reading that occurs with the rectangular format of paper.  It was important that the drawings can be worked on from every angle on the ground.  The paper was taken back in to the studio and erased and worked on some more.  For the Emergence series the works were considered finished when they acquired a smell of burnt ashes and an active shifting surface.  My aim was to show the ground as an active force in our lives.  Whilst I had hoped for a positive engagement with the land, the overall sense of the works was one of grieving and loss.  The works contain traces of events from colonization to the present day and convey the losses that have occurred during that period.