artist statement
Last Word 2012, a site-specific river performance, which developed research into acoustic and light transmission systems in remote environments. While much research into the future advancement of 21st technology is poignant, the examination of past and present forms of communication enables a rich and deeper insight into human condition.
Last Word 2012 is the third and final commissioned performance in the series for Siteworks. This collaboration focused upon a growing understanding of the land from cultural and scientific perspectives, encompassing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories of place, and inevitably, considerations of land usage and discussions around the future of food and water.
The work embodied a river fugue of voices, and channelled memory in the form of a farmers diary from the region, written in the 1880’s. The dialogue focussed on the mundane daily weather report to explore the sense of time and necessary need to understand the climate. These voices transmitted then received beside, around and across the Shoalhaven tidal zone. It referenced the Boyd landscape legacy through the light and sound transmission, which illuminated and echoed upon the ghostly hillside, as a procession ascended and eventually disappeared into darkness.
credits
The PLANK Annemarie Dalziel, Ian Hobbs, Neil Mackenzie, Michelle Xen and Chrisopher Zinn.
Special Thanks: Richard Manner for technical advice and support, John Tonkin - camera, Keira Mackenzie and Bert Tenbungu Groves -Yamma – children voices.
…and support from: Jenny Tubby, Billy Jade Prince, Xanthe Zarrella, Djon Mundine, Terry Hayes, Barbara Campbell, Nick Keys and of course the wonderful team at Bundanon and Riversdale.
isea 2013
SITEWORKS is an interdisciplinary research and practice project that invites artists, scientists and scholars to respond to the Bundanon property through the lens of their specific discipline. Over four years this has led to a series of interactive projects, many utilising electronic technologies. The inaugural investigations focussed on the geomorphology of the site and palaeoenvironmental research, specifically in the area of sea level rise and climate change. In subsequent years the focus has been on water and the river; land management; Indigenous cultural heritage, and food security.
paper: 19th international symposium of electronic art, isea2013, sydney
