Untitled from Lake Mountain, 2012
In our
capitalist pursuit we thought we found progress, but in that, things got
lost forever. Now the urgency to halter manifests, knowing what is lost
can’t resurrect. Our legacy is undeniably carved into everything we’ve
touched; water, land, air. According to predictions measuring the
effects of global warming, Australia counts among one of the countries
most vulnerable to climate change. Increasingly extreme weather
conditions threaten to impact destructively on the environment,
biodiversity, infrastructure and community. During the 2009 Black
Saturday Bush fires considerable damage was caused at Lake Mountain, a
popular winter destination 120 km out of Melbourne, Australia, changing
the site forever. Lake Mountain is a long-term study of this scarred and
transitioning Australian landscape. Much of my practice is an
inquiry into our physical and emotional connection to place and our
relationship to that which surrounds us. At their core, my methodology
and vernacular rotate around the idea of returning to things; I’ve held
this mountain’s breath for six years. It’s through immersion that I can
be part of a land. The return enables me to know, the knowing makes me
love, the loving authors me.
