My pro bono work with Groundswell once again gave me the opportunity to enter the home space of one of Australia’s great climate activists. This time I had the pleasure of catching up with Denise Cauchi, Executive Director of Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), in her beautiful Brunswick home and garden. Denise has the most magical soul-filled family home and it was a pleasure to spend time with her and her trusty doggy side-kicks to capture images to go with the following piece about the wonderful work of DEA.
river banners
Documenting Sarah Tomasetti’s river banners for the Birrarung: On The River exhibition at Chapman and Bailey. The exhibition featured a mix of professional artists and the wider community of Birrarung devotees in response to living and working on the river. Sarah invited me to photograph the de-install which was a wonderful way to clock the movement and texture of the pieces.
“Breaststroke is perfect for wild-water swimming. With eyes at water level, it allows me to take everything in. I look up to the Native Golden Wattles and Yarra gums growing impossibly out of the rocky cliffs on the other side of the river. Bobbing across the water’s surface are thousands of golden sweet-smelling flower heads from the wattles. It’s like a starry, starry night-sky. A pair of Snow Geese are spotted in the distance gathering insects in the reeds, while a raft of Pacific black-ducks glide by and attempt to herd us into shore.”
Carolyn Tate
council st life drawing
I photographed this still life drop-in session hosted by Council St Life Drawing as part of Testing Grounds Summer Emporium. Zoe from Council St set up an incredibly long table of gloriousness, a healthy supply of art supplies and an invitation to any passers-by to join in a FREE drawing session.
Keeping in mind food waste (an ongoing concern for Zoe) she curated the scene using food that was either being thrown out, squashed, brown or heavily discounted on its last legs. I loved the slow meandering in the way people joined in, let themselves yield to the process and participate in some great discussion.
In Zoe’s words, it was “…an ode to summer nights; sharing meals with friends outside and enjoying the last of the seasonal produce, lazily playing cards, reading books and happily slurping the last drops of a shared wine. There were so many great conversations over the course of the day about how we interact with food and how in turn this connects us to our bodies, all the way from market visits to just eating toast in friend’s kitchens. This still-life scene is about my love of hosting, sharing food, eating and making food, and of course - art. It’s as always just about putting your pen to the page and letting go of expectations, knowing that like all these veggies - being wonky and a lil weird looking - is always more interesting (that goes for both ya body and your drawings).”
composting... (full title truncated)
I documented Emily Simek’s VCA Master of Contemporary Art Graduation Exhibition - “Composting… (full title truncated).
In Emily’s words:
“Composting (full title truncated) is a body of work co-created with a worm-farm compost system. In this practice, digital technologies intra-act within nutrient cycles at the site of the compost heap. Worms ingest organic waste to form piles of soft humus. A contact microphone transcribes the workings of the worms into a textural soundscape. Microscopic footage of compost materials trace decomposition through the slippage of pixels in a video projection. The skins of vegetables are reconstituted as digital renders that blossom into fragrant soft sculptures. These are all processes in the cross-pollination of matter in a techno-compost system. Together they explore the potentialities of closed-loop systems in permaculture design for art-making practices.”
blackboard!
I was privileged to document Michelle Destefano VCA Contemporary Art Graduation Exhibition - “Blackboard!”
In Michelle’s words:
“Blackboard! evolved from a series of performances that used my story of being a Deaf person who has experienced a form of oppression called ‘audism’ and forced ‘oralism’. Audism is the attitude of people who want Deaf people to speak and not use sign, or who ignore Deaf people’s communication needs. This installation work is informed by ongoing issues for the Deaf community, despite Auslan being our true and most accepted language. Blackboard! discusses the ‘Tickle Talker’, an electrical-shock device forced onto me from 1988 to 1991, to ‘help me learn to ‘hear’ through shocks to my fingers. This work advocates for decolonisation of the Deaf community through increased awareness of Deaf issues around access, audism and displacement of the Deaf community.”
melbourne in motion
As part of Testing Ground’s Summer emporium Melbourne in Motion set up an indoor parkour course. Their approach to parkour is that it’s for everybody! You can’t be too young or too old, too unfit, too nervous, too anything! It’s all about finding the best way to move for you. Run by diverse people (including women, LGBTQIA+, and people of colour), diversity and inclusivity are their mantras. They value community and helping minorities have space and find confidence and believe that there's more to training than who can jump the furthest, or do the most push-ups. They are super interested in continually finding new and interesting ways to train, to be challenged, and grow as movement practitioners, but also as humans. They're passionate about making spaces for people of all kinds in movement, especially people who are otherwise marginalised or a minority.
Kel and John hosted the event and it was really fun watching it unfold. I loved the way people stood back and observed and then jumped into the flow when it felt right on their own terms lifted up by a gently supportive environment.
rupture, repattern, repair
I documented Claire Bridge’s VCA Master of Contemporary Art Graduation Exhibition - “rupture: repattern: repair”.
A description of the exhibition in her words:
“My work fuses the mythic and grotesque. I engage with practices of rupture, repatterning and repair to address concerns for voice, power and violence. Drawing on ancestral transmissions and a synthesis of my Indian-Assamese and Anglo-European heritage, I re-signify and empower the wounded, monstrous feminine through works framed by the mythologies of Medusa, Lilith, Shakti and Kali. Resisting Western tendencies to deny violence and erase scars, my work witnesses the wounded psyche and soma through visible ruptures and tactile fragmentations. Embedded within processes, objects and materials are gestures of repair to personal and collective wounds, opening ruptures of transformational potential and plasticity. In response to systemic male violence against women, repair is a vital practice of cultural resistance, continuity and future-making.”
