Set in motion
We are two artists who live and work together in Katoomba often in the company of our children. We use a variety of processes including, photography, video, sound, textiles, sculpture and coding to document and work through our movements and interests.
We conceived this project in response to a period of isolation and the desire to be with other artists exploring our local landscapes, which have gone through so much change in the past year.
Walking seems the ideal action for establishing a collaboration. Moving through a new place simultaneously alone and together, the conversation flows more easily. Our attention switches from the physical sensation of our bodies, to the shape of the unwinding path, to snippets of overheard conversation about time or mortality or some mundane affair. We get lost together and find our way together, often easily but sometimes with real difficulty, learning yet again that even though we meet somewhere similar our approach has been completely different, making our shared understanding something that requires constant resolution.
On this walk we are joined by our eldest son as he tests the constantly expanding capability of his physicality and we confront the reality of our ageing bodies and the care that goes into keeping them fit for purpose. Together we help each other through the passage of emotional states that arise when subjected to exposure, fatigue, fear, awe, beauty and discovery.
As always our expectations of what this work might be and how this process might go are totally off track. Day dreams of a hard but predicable walk with periods of making and reflection are quickly disbanded as we contend with the difficulty of navigating a heavily burnt landscape that has obscured the historical paths. We went for walk, really does end up describing the project. We literally walk all day for the two days we are out exploring, crashing into bed at night and dreaming of how and where we might walk the next day. Out failures in being able to make the type of work we had imagined become triggers for imagining different working practices for the next chapter of the project and the excitement of evolving something new.
Summit camp, Mount Dingo, long exposure photograph.
Burnt rock samples found on the summit of Mount Dingo.
Track sculpture found on the western side of Mount Dingo. Carried while scrambling to the summit.
Paper bark samples found at lunch stop surrounded by twisted vines and new growth.