The Shape of Time: Affective Weathering and Material Mutability

(1)

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

Research School of Humanities and the Arts

SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN

VISUAL ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

STEPHEN JON NEWTON

THE SHAPE OF TIME: A PRACTICE-LED INQUIRY INTO AFFECTIVE WEATHERING AND

MATERIAL MUTABILITY

A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR

THE DEGREE OF THE

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

(2)

(3)

ii

Declaration of Originality

I, Stephen Newton, hereby declare that the thesis here presented is the outcome of the

research project undertaken during my candidacy, that I am the sole author unless

otherwise indicated, and that I have fully documented the source of ideas, references,

quotations and paraphrases attributable to other authors.

(4)

iii

Acknowledgments

I thank my supervisors, Wendy Teakel, Sarah Scott and Amanda Stuart for their belief in the

project and their wealth of insight and guidance throughout my candidacy. I thank my first

chair, Paul Hay, for supporting the potential of the project. I thank my children, Rocco and

Iggy, for their unconditional love and humour. Finally, my deepest thanks go to my wife

Kellee, for her unwavering strength, support and patience. This research is supported by an

(5)

iv

Abstract

This practice-led research project investigates weathering as a sculptural process and studies

how changes in material can embody memory and suggest place. The idea developed from a

connection to Moreton Island, a small sand island off the east coast of Australia, shaped by

natural phenomena and the elements. In the research Moreton Island is a departure point

underpinning a philosophy of change and impermanence. The intention of the project is to

engage time-based, phenomenal methodologies with wood as a way to generate

unexpected and unplanned forms. This approach to making sculpture circumvents ideas

about the art object and its agency. In contrast to a dualistic model of making and

perception, the research in this project is underpinned by the Japanese Mono-ha

philosophy, meaning ’school of things’. The Mono-ha philosophy rejects representation in

favour of revealing material properties and conditions. The results of this research project

are discrete groups of sculpture in wood which have been affected by sun, wind, fire, water,

abrasion and oxidation. These natural processes involve maker, tool and material in a

correspondence which attempts to shape sculpture devoid of representation and referents.

The resulting sculptures are indications of time and change, ongoing systems trailing

material history and provenance. They are forms which invite one to reflect on the nature of

(6)

v

List of illustrations

All images not otherwise attributed are of the authors own work.

Fig. 1. Moreton Island. View of the lighthouse from the eastern beach. 2015.

Fig. 2. The Materiality of Memory. 2015. Installation view. Limestone lighthouse on

reclaimed fibreglass base, reclaimed wardrobe, pumice stone, antique plumb bobs, sound

recording, reclaimed plan drawer containing works on paper, reclaimed plan drawer

containing sand, found ceramic and glass fragments.

Fig. 3. Lighthouse. 2015. Detail. Limestone, weathered fibreglass.

Fig. 4. Lighthouse. 2015. Detail. Limestone, weathered fibreglass.

Fig. 5. Axis Mundi. 2015. Reclaimed plan drawer, rusted steel legs, seven rust on paper

works. 62 cm x 78 cm.

Fig. 6. Axis Mundi. Detail. 2015.

Fig. 7. Axis Mundi. Detail. 2015.

Fig. 8. Symbol of Cosmic Coordination. 2015. Rust on paper. 62 cm x 78 cm.

Fig. 9. Provenant Materiality. 2015. Reclaimed plan drawer, rusted steel legs, sand from

Moreton Island, fragments of glass and ceramic excavated from the Cape Moreton

headland.

Fig. 10. Provenant Materiality. 2015. Detail.

Fig. 11. The Materiality of Memory. 2015. Reclaimed wardrobe, pumice stone, antique

plumb bobs, sound recording.

Fig. 12. The Materiality of Memory. 2015. Detail.

Fig. 13. The Materiality of Memory. 2015. Detail.

Fig. 14. Agents. 2018. Wood, rusted steel. 36 pieces. Overall installation 460 cm wide x 240 cm high.

Fig. 15. Agent. 2018. Detail.

Fig. 16. Agents. 2018. Detail.

Fig. 17. Martin Puryear. Some Tales. 1975-77. Ash and Yellow Pine. Neal Benezra, Martin

Puryear (Co-published by Thames and Hudson Ltd, London and The Art Institute of Chicago,

(9)

viii Fig. 18. Martin Puryear. Stripling, 1976, Ash. 215 x 25 cm. Neal Benezra, Martin Puryear

(Co-published by Thames and Hudson Ltd, London and The Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), 63.

Fig. 19. Martin Puryear. Untitled, 1975-77, Ash and Yellow Pine. 150 x 198 x 2.5 cm. Neal Benezra, Martin Puryear (Co-published by Thames and Hudson London and The Art Institute

of Chicago, 1993), 71.

Fig. 20. Relative. 2018. Wood. 34 pieces. Overall dimensions 180 cm diameter x 130 cm high. Fig. 21. Relative. 2018. Detail.

Fig. 22. Shigeo Toya. Woods. 2016. Wood, wood ash, acrylic. 220 x 31 x 31 cm each, 30

pieces. http://shugoarts.com/en/artist/166/, accessed January 23, 2018.

Fig. 23. Shigeo Toya. Woods. 2016. Detail. http://shugoarts.com/en/news-en/792/, accessed

23 January 2018.

Fig. 24. David Nash. Shatter Dome. 2000. Smashed oak. Sarah Coulson, ed., David Nash at

Yorkshire Sculpture Park. (Yorkshire Sculpture Park: United Kingdom, 2010), 62.

Fig. 25. David Nash. Beaver Chew Dome. 2000. Cottonwood. Coulson, Sarah, ed. David Nash

at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. (Yorkshire Sculpture Park: United Kingdom, 2010), 63. Fig. 26. Evidence. 2018. Wood. Seven pieces between 170 cm and 290 cm high. Floor

dimensions 600 cm x 400 cm.

Fig. 27. Evidence. 2018. Detail.

Fig. 28. Evidence. 2018. Detail.

Fig. 29. David Nash. Crag and Cave. 2001. Charred yew. Sarah Coulson, ed., David Nash at

Fig. 30. David Nash. King and Queen. 1991. Charred oak. Sarah Coulson, ed., David Nash at

Fig. 31. Toshikatsu Endo. Void (cylindrical). 2013. Wood, iron, earth, air, fire. 204 cm high x

458 cm diameter. http://artfrontgallery.com/en/exhibition/archive/2010_08/428.html,

accessed June 25, 2018.

Fig. 32. Occurrence. 2018. Turpentine corbels. Eight pieces. Overall dimensions 120 cm

diameter x 150 cm high.

Fig. 33. Occurrence. 2018. Detail.

(10)

ix Fig. 35. Shigeo Toya. Interface III. 1993. Wood, wood ashes, acrylic. 95 x 95 x 95 cm each,

nine pieces. https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/23921/Shigeo-Toya-Interface-III,

accessed January 27, 2018.

Fig. 36. David Nash. Eighteen Thousand Tides. 1996. Recycled oak groynes. Twelve pieces.

http://www.publicsculpturesofsussex.co.uk/object?id=63, accessed March 15, 2017).

Fig. 37. The Vast Exterior/The Vast Interior. 2017. Forest Red Gum. Fig. 38. The Vast Exterior/The Vast Interior. 2017. Detail

Fig. 39. Nobuo Sekine. Phase – Mother Earth. 1968. Earth. 270 cm deep x 220 cm diameter.

http://www.nobuosekine.com/image/phase-mother-earth-1968/, accessed April 12, 2018.

Fig. 40. Suga Kishio. Infinite Situation I. 1970/2012. Wood. 261.6 x 29.2 x 29.2 cm.

https://www.kishiosuga.com/installations-infinite-situation-i-window-1970/, accessed July

24, 2018.

Fig. 41. Emergent. 2017. Camphor Laurel. 90 cm diameter.

Fig. 42. Emergent. 2017. Detail.

Fig. 43. David Nash. Wooden Boulder. 1978. Wood, wood ash, acrylic. 90 × 98 × 92 cm.

http://ntwelshcoast.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-rediscovered-boulder.html, accessed

November 18, 2017.

Fig. 44. Shigeo Toya. Mass of Folds II. 2015. Wood, wood ash, acrylic. 60 × 60 × 62 cm.

https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/31816/Shigeo-Toya-Mass-of-Folds-II, accessed

July 22, 2018.

Fig. 45. The Moreton Archives. 2016. Artist books, wood table, steel.

Fig. 46. Selection of experimental works on paper. 2015-2018.

Fig. 47. Condition. 2018. Rust on paper. Three pieces on wall and floor. Each piece 110 cm

wide x 350 cm high.

Fig. 48. Condition. Detail.

Fig. 49. Michelle Stuart. Moray Hill. 1974. Graphite on muslin mounted paper. 365 x 157 cm.

https://www.alisonjacquesgallery.com/artists/197-michelle-stuart/works/16566/, accessed

August 14, 2018.

Fig. 50. Susan Derges. Shoreline. 1998. Photograph. 100 x 250 cm.

(11)

x

List of Exhibited Works

1 Agents. 2018. Wood, 36 pieces. Overall dimensions 460 cm wide x 240 cm high.

2 Relative. 2018. Wood, 34 pieces. Overall dimensions 180 cm diameter x 130 cm high.

3 Evidence. 2018. Wood, seven pieces. Approximate floor dimensions 600 cm x 400

cm. Height range from 170 cm – 290 cm.

4 Occurrence. 2018. Wood, eight pieces. Overall dimensions 120 cm diameter x 150 cm

high.

5 Emergent. 2018. Wood. 90 cm diameter.

6 Condition. 2018. Rust on paper, three pieces on wall and floor. Each piece 110 cm

(12)

xi

Glossary of Terms

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is a branch of perceptive philosophy which studies the interconnectedness

between the subject and the world which is perceived. This research is based on the

theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, which have been applied by archaeologist Christopher

Tilley and anthropologist Tim Ingold. Artists of the Japanese Mono-ha movement discussed

in this exegesis were also influenced by the theories of Merleau-Ponty. Throughout the

project Phenomenological methodology has been used as a perceptive and reflective

instrument.

Becoming

Becoming refers to the ongoing and changing vitality of all matter and material. The concept

originated with the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said that ‘nothing in this world is

constant except change and becoming.’1_{To understand becoming is to accept that matter}

and material are in continuous flow with the phenomenal world. The concept of becoming

has been advanced by anthropologist Tim Ingold to describe the ongoing nature of

materials, and how this influences the maker, the process of making and subsequently the

final form. This project aligns the concept of becoming to a material’s mutability, and is used

to explain the change in a material through time and space in the phenomenal world.

Correspondence

The term correspondence is used to describe the physical relationship between the artist

and the material during the act of making. Correspondence is a process which is led by the

material and followed by the maker and the tool. It is a physical and reciprocal activity

requiring all the senses of the body.

1_{Joshua J. Mark, “Definition: Heraclitus of Ephesus”. Ancient History Encyclopaedia, (accessed February 9,}

(13)

xii Encounter

Encounter refers to a momentary experience one has with an object or an environment. It is

not based on a purely visual or aesthetic experience. It cannot be planned in advance and

can occur anywhere in time or place. To know we are experiencing an encounter is to

become aware of our physical relationship with the interdependency of material elements

and the surrounding space. More than just an experience in, or of, the world, an encounter

helps us understand our connection to the immediate environment and subsequently the

world. The theory of encounter originated in phenomenology. In this research I refer to

encounter as it was advanced by Lee Ufan from the Mono-ha art movement, who used it to

describe the relationship of the viewer to a sculpture. In this context the sculpture acts as a

mediator between the viewer and the immediate environment. I have explored how an

encounter with a weathered and mutable sculpture invites the viewer to consider their

connection not only to the immediate environment, but the natural world.

(14)

1

Introduction

Mutability

Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.2

Everything that exists undergoes continual change and transformation. We experience this

mutability in ourselves and witness it in everyone and everything throughout our lives. How

much or how little things change can be determined by the rhythms and cycles of natural

forces; the repetition and duration of phenomena upon all sentient and non-sentient

matter. Change is all around us; what we call the present is given shape by an accumulation

of a past which continually presses against us. Over time, the past manifests, becoming

embedded in matter and material. From a time-worn patina to the transformative effects of

abrasion, charring, bleaching and rusting, natural phenomenon act repeatedly upon all

matter and material, constantly affecting change.

This practice-led research project embraces change and impermanence as a methodology.

Its research purpose is to engage with material as it already exists; which is in a state of

mutability; and to use affective weathering as a way to perpetuate the appearance of this

state. As a result of the methodology, unplanned forms evolve with the potential to reveal

the shape of time in the material. The medium selected for this research project comes from

our most enduring and life-sustaining organism – the tree. In my practice as a sculptor the

mutability of the material is a metaphor for the mutability of the self as we negotiate our

ongoing relation to the natural world.

In chapter one I explain how I developed a methodology of change and impermanence. I

explain my first body of research, a broad investigation into materiality inspired by place.

Chapter two establishes a detailed context for the project. It questions the sculptural object

as an artefact with an ascribed agency, and explores the activity of making as a

(15)

2

correspondence between the artist and the material. In chapter three I describe two bodies

of sculpture which explore encounter, embodiment and memory. These sculptures contrast

two different weathering techniques which have been investigated in relation to the

physicality of making. Chapter four introduces one sculpture and a series of three large

works on paper. Both artworks are analysed with relation to the phenomenal landscape

which connects us to the lived world.

Locating the Field

This project exists within a contemporary western model of sculpture and three dimensional

practice. The research has been informed by current debates relating to sculpture, place,

materiality and memory. These debates are underpinned by contemporary artists’ work and

theories involving art and anthropology, materiality, making and embodiment, and finally

place and site. The artists whose work I reference have been selected for their investigations

into place, memory, and making. All the artists maintain a substantial studio practice, and

the sculptors I have referenced dedicate their practice primarily to the medium of wood. All

the artists discussed in the exegesis investigate relationships with the natural environment,

and advocate the criticality of this relationship in their research and artwork.

In my research I use the term materiality, which refers to an artworks physicality and how its

matter and material can be sensed and verified by the body. I also use materiality to refer to

the process of art-making and the physical correspondence between artist and material. In

the research materiality and physicality are directly linked to the works content and

subsequently, its meaning.

My research aims to reveal ways in which the weathering and abrasion of wood can present

itself both as a metaphor for memory as well as invoking the cognitive act of remembering.

Memory is then implied through affected forms and surfaces which reveal their own

mutability. Led by the properties of the medium and guided by an underpinning philosophy

of change, this practice-led research project examines ideas of materiality, mutability,

(16)

3

Because the development of the practice-led component of the project occurred in

chronological fashion, it seemed logical for the exegesis to follow the same structure, and is

presented across four chapters. Chapter one presents a body of preliminary research and

provides a methodology. Chapters two, three and four each explain the methodology of six

bodies of sculptural work and one body of work on paper.

Project Outline

My intention is to examine weathering processes and reductive techniques as a way to

produce sculpture in wood. The project was inspired by Moreton Island, a heritage-listed

sand island off the east coast of Queensland, Australia. I have camped at the same location

on this island for over twenty years. During this time, the islands natural environment,

geology and history have influenced my working process. Its constantly moving, sand-based

morphology has contributed to a philosophy of change and impermanence in my sculptural

practice which has, in turn, inspired the research topic.

Moreton Island is inscribed with indigenous and European history. Middens, gravesites,

military ruins, a lighthouse, shipwrecks, and all manner of historical and modern human

interventions have slowly merged with the morphology of the island. This amalgamation of

history and place has inspired me to reflect on the nature of memory and material, leading

to the primary research questions – how can the appearance of a time-worn material invite

an act of remembering beyond the agency of the object? Could a process of remembering

also be revealed in a material’s mutability and morphology? Ultimately, I wanted to know

how a sculpture, devoid of representation and referents, could embody memory and

suggest place through its materiality alone.

In this exegesis, Moreton Island is explained in relation to concepts of place. Establishing

place provides a stepping-off point into the main body of research. I then proceed to explore

ideas concerning material and memory and the separation from place. In the early stage of

the research I investigated the influence of Moreton Island with place-related concepts such

as: site-specific, place-inspired, site-activated, and place-generated; to name but a few

examples used in current literature. In my research I use a term which defines the nature of

(17)

4

acknowledges the importance of place in the project, while excluding any inference to an

objective topology.

The projects methodology therefore, is set within a framework of remembering. The

framework affects my relationship with materials and tools as well as the correspondence of

making. During making, my remembering and the material’s remembering echo and

correspond with one other. A portion of my research lies in exploring this correspondence as

it occurs during the physical actions of making. The research will be explained in a

chronological fashion which reflects the time-based philosophy of the project. Each body of

research will be presented with reference to prototypes, experiments and ongoing studio

development over the project’s six year duration.

Because I am asking how I can embody memory and suggest place by weathering wood, a

significant challenge I faced was to develop a methodology which could be articulated

through making. This process had to allow the wood to change of its own accord as a result

of weathering, while at the same time allow me to be an active contributor to that change. I

wanted to retain the material’s inherent history and condition, while at the same time guide

that material into a sculptural form.

The second challenge was to understand that a sculptural form could not be predetermined,

but had to evolve as a result of a physical correspondence between myself and the material.

This meant that the research could not be determined or evaluated against formal or

aesthetic precepts. As the correspondence between myself and the material evolved

through weathering and abrasion and the material’s mutability, the wood is transformed

into forms which literally reveal the shape of time.3

The strongest memories I have of Moreton Island come from a total body and senses

experience involving touch, movement, sound, and feeling, in other words immersion. The

same embodied experience of immersion occurs in the studio during making, as I am

3_{This phrase is borrowed from George Kubler’s book, The Shape of Time ‒ Remarks on the History of Things.}

(18)

5

conscious of my memory as it filters the resonances, residues and traces of place which pass

to my hand, into the material and return as a material led correspondence through my hand

and back into my body. Each group of sculpture evidences a journey through forms which

appear impermanent, incomplete and in a stage of morphology. While I have been

conscious to avoid representation and associations, there are some evocations of

momentary or partial resemblances of a tool, a shape, or a structure. However, the works

are not static forms which assume a single identity. Titled Agents, Relative, Condition,

Emergent, Evidence, and Occurrence, each work has an underpinning philosophy

encompassed by its material state of being and its potential, or what Tim Ingold refers to as

the materials ‘becoming’.4

Although the project’s methodology is process-based, the research outcome is

medium-specific and object-oriented. I have therefore investigated the agency of the object and its

connection to the viewer via the spatial conditions of viewing. In this I consider the

relationship between the object and the viewer to be one involving movement and physical

acuity, leading to a potentially transformative experience involving memory and place. In

each body of research the type of weathering, the resulting sculptural form and the spatial

context together establish the conditions of viewing. These conditions invite an embodied

relationship with the work.

Philosophical Context: Correspondence and Phenomenology

In a fundamental sense, and in my research, sculpture can be defined as an object. In a

different sense the object can also be seen as an artefact. These two strands of inquiry led to

an investigation into the nature of matter, material and materiality and how memory is

invoked. Grounded in the philosophy of embodiment, I have explored these concerns in

visual art, anthropology, geography, and archaeology. What I found is the shared belief that

ideas about object, artefact, material and place are evolving and interconnected concepts.

Tim Ingold is an anthropologist whose interests include environmental perception, the

connections between anthropology and art, materiality, place and making. He explores the

4_{Tim Ingold, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. (Routledge: London. 2013), 25, 28, 31,}

(19)

6

human as an organism which 'feels' its way through the world that "is itself in motion";

constantly creating and being changed by spaces and places as they are encountered.5

Ingold uses the term becoming in describing this evolving process of matter and material in

motion. In my research I use this term to describe the mutable nature of wood as a result of

weathering. Ingold’s writing has also informed my research in the way he describes the

correspondence between the maker and the material. This correspondence recognizes a

precondition, which is that material will always be on a journey of becoming. Ingold

describes this journey as ‘a continuous modulation of form.’6_{In his book Making, he explains}

how the shifting nature of form is a journey which can only be followed in the material, not

arrested and contained in a fusion of form and matter called an object or artefact.

These philosophical underpinnings have helped me to understand that my methodology,

though rigorously planned and executed, is at the same time an intuitive journey involving

my body and the material. This journey is more aligned with the ideas put forward by

philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari when they state that:

Artisans … who follow the flow are, in effect, itinerants, wayfarers, whose task is to enter the grain of the worlds becoming and bend it to an enveloping purpose. Theirs is ‘intuition in action.’7

This research sets out to explore the ontological similarities between natural weathering

forces shaping a material and the making of sculpture as a physical, intuitive and

experiential activity. The term correspondence can be used to describe this relationship and

what happens in the space between the artist and the material. In this context

correspondence is associated with using one’s hands and the handmade, which bears some

similarity with how a traditional craftsperson might work with their material.

5_{Tim Ingold, The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill, (London: Routledge,}

2000), 155.

6_{Tim Ingold, Making-Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. (Routledge: London and New York,}

2013), 25.

7_{Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, translation by Brian}

Massumi, (London: Continuum, 2004), 452. Cited in Tim Ingold, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and

(20)

7

Correspondence is also a term used in phenomenology. Phenomenology is both a

philosophy and a methodology which studies our conscious connection with the world as it

is felt through the active body. Phenomenology believes that we only truly know our body

and our self through an ever-changing correspondence with the world. This correspondence

occurs through the dynamism of motion, and the ways in which the human body touches

and is touched by things in the world. In phenomenology this type of correspondence

reveals the ambiguity of boundaries between subject and object at the moment of touch.

Phenomenology therefore acknowledges the ‘in-between’ spaces which govern

relationships between an object and a subject, as well as between the perceiver and the

perceived.

The intertwining between subject and object to which phenomenology subscribes is

expressed by Ingold who cites the tree as a poignant example of connectedness. In this he

asks: Is the tree then, an object? If so, how should we define it? What is tree and what is

not-tree? Where does the tree end and the rest of the world begin? 8_{The writings of Ingold}

are situated in phenomenological theory, as is the work of other artists and theorists

discussed throughout this exegesis.

Over the course of the project and throughout the exegesis, phenomenological theory has

been used to examine place, making and viewing, as well as underpin the correspondence

between myself and the material. I have always been mindful and maintained an awareness

of the life in the material, especially since wood is clearly a living material with ascribed

organic potential. My approach to making sculpture therefore, is not about imposing an idea

on a perceivably inert material. Instead I engage in a physical correspondence, with the

outcome being a mutual resolve arising from this exchange. This resolve is merely one of a

potential of possible resolutions which might have occurred during making. Ingold explains

the correspondence of making as ‘not the imposition of pre-conceived form on raw material

substance, but the drawing out or bringing forth of potentials in a world of becoming. In the

8_{Tim Ingold, “Bringing Things to Life: Creative Entanglements in a World of Materials.” Realities, Working}

Paper #15, University of Aberdeen. (July, 2010), 4.

(21)

8

phenomenal world, every material is such a becoming, one path or trajectory through a

maze of trajectories.’9

Ingold cites Martin Heidegger’s essay on The Thing, describing the idea of ‘thingness’ as

something which is ‘going on’, stating that ‘to observe a thing is not to be locked out but to

be invited into the gathering.’10_{This argument positions ‘thingness’ as different to}

‘objectness’, which is the wilful melding of matter and form to serve a specific purpose. In

my research the concept of ‘thingness’ is used to describe the ongoing and phenomenal

nature of the research outcomes. As a result of these processes the sculptures function as

things or ‘systems’ intended to highlight and advance specific material conditions. With

regards to the research attempting to embody memory and suggest place, I argue that the

activity of remembering is not merely symbolic and representational, but draws upon one’s

own physical being during the act of recollection. In other words, just as the experience of

place involves the whole body, so too does the act of remembering.

Embodied Memory and Remembering Place

In her book Remembering Places: A Phenomenological Study of the Relationship between

Memory and Place, Janet Donohoe explains how our experience of place builds up over

time, like layers constantly shaping a memory of place. 11_{In this project Moreton island is a}

memory shaped by the experiences of a place I have returned to regularly over the past

twenty years. Those years have shaped the island into what Janet Donohoe calls a

‘habituated place’. This is a place which can exist both as a reality and as a memory, because

it is built on years of experiences which have helped to make that place familiar.12_{In the}

research I apply this idea of habituation to the artist’s familiarity with their material and the

repetitious use of the tool. This habituation contributes to the correspondence between

maker and material, spoken of earlier. During my correspondence with the material I am

remembering place through the habituated, repetitious gestures of the tool. Donohoe

suggests that because of our distance from place over time ‘the body memory is never

9_{Ingold, Making, 31.}

10_{Ingold, “Bringing Things to Life”, 4.}

11_{Janet Donohoe, Remembering Places: A phenomenological Study of the Relationship between}

Memory and Place. (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2014), 3.

(22)

9

exactly as it was’13_{. She describes how this distance contributes to the resonance or echoing}

we experience with memory and remembering:

Neither place, nor body, nor memory remain stable because they are all intertwined . . . changes of the body, changes of the material environment, changes in interpretation. The interpretation is as much bodily interpretation as it is memorial or cognitive interpretation.14

The idea of interpreting place through body memory interests me greatly and contributes to

the projects methodology. In the methodology, remembering place and the making of

sculpture exist as one embodied act. As phenomenology is a way of thinking through the

body in its participatory relation with the world, movement and action are important factors

in this project’s methodology because of the way they connect with ideas about place,

space, making and memory.

The practice-led component of the project has been conducted in my sculpture studio. The

project did not require me to return to Moreton Island to conduct further research or field

work. Instead, drawing on twenty years of tacit knowledge through the act of remembering

became an important part of the project’s methodology, hence my earlier use of the term

place-remembered as a way to define the nature of the project. In the end, each body of

sculpture explores the mutability of material affected by weathering and abrasion, time and

change, and utilises this as a way to embody memory and suggest place.

The Work of Other Artists

My search for artists was not concerned with establishing a historical lineage or locating a

grand concept within which to locate the topic. Instead, I searched for those artists whose

work involves deeply embodied ways of responding to the nature of material, memory,

place and space. These artists engage in a physical relationship with a material, and employ

simple tools and repetitive techniques. What follows is a brief introduction to the art

movement, artists and theories which have inspired, influenced and helped contextualise

the research.

(23)

10

The Japanese Mono-ha movement was a pioneering art movement that emerged in Tokyo in

the mid-1960s. Mono-ha loosely translates as ‘School of Things’. As a result of its translating,

it is important to note that the term ‘things’ refers to not only real objects, but to concepts

and theories as well. Mono-ha involved a loosely connected group of artists who explored

materials and their properties as a reaction to what they saw as the ruthless development

and industrialisation of Japan. 15_{Consequently, the Mono-ha philosophy is deeply}

embedded in a Japanese cultural consciousness, one which incorporates nature and spiritual

philosophies into a human beings relationship with the world.

The philosophies of Mono-ha also underpin the research project through their belief that

sculpture should be a continuum of matter in space, and that the artist is an anonymous

entity who simply reveals the conditions of things. In Mono-ha the role of the artist shifts

from being the creator of a work to a facilitator of material conditions. In this role the artist

does not create anything, he or she only rearranges and affects that which already exists.16

The Mono-ha movement negated the modernist notion of the individual artist/creator,

asserting that ‘the artist is but a medium of circumstantial events within a larger, continuous

process.’17_{The Mono-ha philosophy allowed me to circumvent generally held ideas involving}

the art object and its agency, and my understanding of the Mono-ha philosophy has allowed

me to conduct my research unencumbered by a dualistic model of making and perception.

Korean Artist Lee Ufan is one of the major theoretical and practical proponents of the

Mono-ha group. Lee made work using raw physical materials that had barely been

manipulated, leaving them to scatter, lean, drop, or break according to their situation. Lee

applied phenomenology and Asian metaphysics in a dialogue with international

Post-Minimalist practices. He developed a radical artistic language revolving around the notion of

encounter which means seeing the bare existence of what is actually before us and focusing

15_{Tate Modern. “Art and Artists: Art Term.” http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/mono-ha.}

(accessed June 7, 2018)

16_{Mika Yoshitake, Lee Ufan and the Art of Mono-ha in Postwar Japan (1968-1972). (E Scholarship: University of}

California, PhD. Diss., 2012), 159, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55h0p4rt (accessed June 12, 2018).

(24)

11

on "the world as it is."18_{Ufan’s original training was in philosophy, subsequently his art is}

rooted in an Eastern appreciation of the nature of materials and also in modern European

phenomenology.19_{Driven by Ufan’s theories, Mono-ha engaged phenomenology as a way to}

examine the exchange between subject and object. This exchange is embodied and

reciprocal, or what French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty refers to using terms such as

reversibility and the asymmetry of difference.20_{Mono-ha develops these ideas by making}

artwork in which space and time become contingent elements in defining the subject object

exchange.

Martin Puryear is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional wood-craft. He

engages in physical labour using basic tools and traditional methods. Puryears’ reductive

techniques and reflective approach constitutes a correspondence which extends the

physical and metaphorical boundaries of his materials. Puryear explores the variety, density

and tactile strength of wood, as well as its organic vitality. This organic vitality is one which

forever remains subject to movement and change in response to different environments

and methods of handling.21

Another artist whose work explores the inherent nature of wood, trees and the natural

environment is English sculptor David Nash. As an artist who works in and with the

landscape, Nash embraces the provenance and connections of the tree with its

environment. Nash also challenges ideas of connection by also exploring the nomadic nature

of wood, as matter detached from the earth, affected by natural elements and constantly

evolving. Nash’s sculptures are made using the repetitive, reductive action of the chainsaw.

He then uses fire to transform the material into unexpected shapes.

18_{Guggenheim Collection Online, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/lee-ufan}

(accessed November 1, 2018)

19_{Kim Mi Kyung, “Study on Sekine Nobuo Ron” by Lee Ufan. Art journal Sansai, Japan, (June, 1969). Cited in}

Journal of Korean Modern Art History, (Association for Education of Korean Art History, Seoul, Korea, 2005),

234-78.

20_{See Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception. (Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 1962).}

Also Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Primacy of Perception. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964).

21_{Robert Storr, Martin Puryear: The Hands Proportion. Cited in Neal Benezra, Martin Puryear (Co-published by}

(25)

12

Shigeo Toya is a Japanese artist who also uses a chainsaw in his sculpture to explore

expressive forms with subconscious narratives. Toya graduated from Aichi Prefectural

University of Fine Arts in 1975, which immediately succeeded the Mono-ha movement.

Although Mono-ha rejected the prevailing conventions of Western style expressionism in

favour of an unconditional acceptance that material and the world should exist as it is,

Shigeo Toya rejected the strict literalism of his Mono-ha predecessors by creating

expressive, large scale works in wood which explore nature, place and embodiment. Toya

uses the chainsaw to delicately carve the wood in a search for allegorical and symbolic form,

often drawing our attention to the place of trees in the cycle of life.

Material and spiritual transformation are key themes in the work of Toshikatsu Endo, who

creates monumental sculptures and installations using the elements of nature such as

water, wood, soil, and fire. Influenced both by Shinto attitudes toward nature and Zen

aesthetics, as well as by Western Minimalism, Endo frequently creates forms from scorched

wood, suggesting ancient rituals which connect the work in time and place. In this exegesis I

focus on Endos’ exploration of the void, and how charring transforms the wood into a

material loaded with myth and memory. Like his contemporary, Shigeo Toya, Endos’

sculptures are rooted in a Japanese world view, which incorporates nature and humankind

into a single connection with the world.

I focus on embodiment and connection in the work of Michelle Stuart, a contemporary

American artist who, since the mid 1970’s, has been producing works that synthesize land

art, drawing and sculpture.22_{Stuarts work is rooted in areas of anthropology, archaeology}

and mythologies of earth and place, which she expresses through earthworks, books,

frottage, and multimedia installations. 23_{In chapter four I refer to one of Stuarts’ large}

frottage scrolls, describing it as a work which articulates a profound engagement with the

physicality of landscape and space. In Stuarts scroll the development of the work is

determined by the earth itself, rather than the artists hand or ego.

22_{Melissa Fielding, “Michelle Stuart: Trace Memory Selected Works 1969-2015.” Paraffin, United Kingdom,}

Press Release, 2015. http://www.parafin.co.uk/assets/pfn_stuart_press.release.pdf (accessed June 12, 2018).

(26)

13

Susan Derges establishes unmediated relationships with the world. An English artist

specialising in camera-less photographic processes, she conducts most of her work

outdoors, often working with natural landscapes at night. Derges uses only natural and

assisted light and photographic paper as a way to conduct a physical and unmediated

relationship with place. Although her images can be highly aesthetic, her focus is on the

embodied nature of making and the unmediated way that natural phenomena become

absorbed into the surface of the photographic paper, appearing as a ghostly trace or

residue. In chapter four I compare Michelle Stuart’s and Susan Derges’ methodologies to my

own, by highlighting the interdependence of the artist, the material, and the phenomenal

world.

(27)

14

Chapter 1 – Being in Place and Tracing the Paths of Becoming

Introduction

This chapter begins with an investigation into my connection with Moreton Island as place.24

As I have visited the island every year for the past twenty years, I feel it’s important to

indicate the relevance of Moreton Island to the research project by explaining how it

inspired the projects philosophy and methodology. Because this investigation is conducted

in the context of practice-led research, I will explain why I chose phenomenology as the

philosophical lens through which to explore Moreton Island and my connection to it. I will

explain how Merleau-Ponty’s theory of reversibility, re-evaluated by Christopher Tilley,

helped to contextualise my relationship with Moreton Island as a natural environment.

I will outline how Miwon Kwon’s survey of current practices that constitute site-specificity

inspired me to engage with a broad scope of inquiry in the early stages of the project. I will

then describe the first body of work made during this time, which was a response to my

twenty year connection to Moreton Island. This first experimental body of work was

conducted with the following questions in mind: How can I formulate a sculptural response

to place? And: What part would material and making play in such an inquiry?

I conclude the chapter by reflecting on the installation as a site-remembered experiment,

and explain how it consolidated the project’s methodology. This methodology and the

subsequent bodies of research are then fully examined in chapters two, three and four.

24_{Moreton Island is a 37km long sand island located in Moreton Bay, off the coast of south-east Queensland,}

(28)

15 Returning to Place

I’ve returned again and it’s dark. The ocean wind hisses through the dune grass, the

casuarinas click-clack above my head as I trudge along the sand. I am an insignificant nothing, enveloped in a vast, speckled dome. The place I’m in is unaffected by my presence. I am alone and unafraid, for this is my place of return, and we are old friends; though this friend doesn’t know that I exist. And that’s how I like it; it has always been that way. I come here, to my place of return, to be affected and inspired. The shifting sands of time exist on Moreton Island. Compared to the life of a human being, the island may not appear to change much, but it never stops changing. So here I walk, upon poetry in slow- motion, on an island composed entirely from sand.25

I first came to ‘Moreton’ twenty years ago, and set up camp on the north-eastern beach; the

surf side; with a view of the Cape Moreton lighthouse (fig. 1). I have returned to the same

place every year since. Moreton is only accessible by barge from the mainland, then by four

wheel drive. You have to bring your own food, water and firewood. I brought my art satchel

loaded with drawing materials and paper, and every year for twenty years I camped at the

same place on the island and made works on paper. Moreton Island was going to be the

focus of my research project, the centre of an exploration into material, process and place. I

wanted to investigate how the island affected my approach to making sculpture and to see

where a research methodology could be developed based on my experiences of the island. I

was wondering what forms this sculpture would take, and how it could address the place I

was in? My experiences on Moreton Island have all occurred at the same location which is

on the north-eastern tip of the island. It is to this place that I return to camp, make works on

paper, and simply be on the island. Moreton Island is a natural environment composed of

incredibly complex elements. Light, sound, atmosphere, smell and temperature operate in

sync with the island’s flora and fauna; organic systems integrated into the geology and

morphology of the island. These systems have left a deep imprint of place upon me, an

accretion of immersive encounters grounded in movement, perception and response.

(29)

16

[image:29.595.73.526.80.381.2]

Fig. 1. Moreton Island. View of the lighthouse from the eastern beach.

Natural Environment as Cultural Habitat

Nature is not the external ‘other’ with which the sentimental urban dweller engages in moments of existential despair, but part of the intrinsic internal ‘self’ of each person.26

I believe that nature is not a separate entity existing outside the internal, perceiving self. I

cannot separate myself from nature, just as I cannot separate myself from culture. In

Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama claims that although we are accustomed to separate

nature and culture into two realms, they are, in fact, indivisible. Before it can ever be the

repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind, with its scenery built up as much

from strata of memory as from layers of rock.27_{I further argue that the layers of memory to}

which Schama refers, are layers built upon a cultural perception of place. It is in these layers

26_{Jay Appleton, The Experience of Landscape (John Wiley and Sons: London and New York, 1975). Cited in}

Sasha Grishin, John Wolseley: Land Marks II, (Craftsman House: Sydney, Australia, 2006), 116.

(30)

17

of perception that we find our deeper connection to the natural environment. In relation to

my research, Moreton Island is a place which activates an inherent part of my deeper self,

and over time has become a part of my cultural habitat. Australian author Sasha Grishin

claims that a relationship with the natural environment is based on an intrinsic

predisposition and that our internal self has an archetypal connection to certain

landscapes.28_{Grishin cites Jay Appleton’s The Symbolism of Habitat: An Interpretation of}

Landscape in the Arts, who explains that there are places with which we are innately

familiar, even upon our first encounter. These places exist as an archetype produced by our

cultural conditioning.29_{I would suggest that our cultural conditioning is based upon our}

understanding and experience of places we have lived and visited. While drawing on our

perception and cultural conditioning, an experience of place also accumulates through our

body’s movement and senses. Though we may be very familiar with a place, each return

activates a new, embodied encounter.

An aspect of my research is investigating how an encounter with sculpture would transpire.

This encounter is analogous to my experiences on Moreton Island, which is grounded in

embodiment and cultural conditioning. In my research I am weathering wood by emulating

and accelerating natural weathering processes. What my research attempts to do is use

weathered and affected material as a way to involve the viewer in an embodied encounter

underpinned by cultural conditioning. This encounter is as an invitation to reflect on the

nature of time, memory and place.

Being in Place: Phenomenology and the Asymmetry of Difference

My relationship to Moreton Island has developed within a paradigm of cultural cognition,

embodiment and movement. There is a reciprocal relationship at play between my

perception of the island and the islands’ imprint on me. This relationship is mediated

through my bodily and sensory encounters. British archaeologist Christopher Tilley contends

that ‘places are contexts for human experiences, constructed in movement, memory,

28_{Appleton, Jay, The Experience of Landscape, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, cited in Grishin, Sasha, John}

Wolseley: Land Marks II (Craftsman House: Australia, 2006), 12.

(31)

18

encounter and association.’30_{He explains how an embodied perception of place is rooted in}

phenomenology, a mode of perceiving our relationship to the world based on the sensing

body. Tilley explains how we come to know place through this embodied encounter,

explaining that:

The human body provides the fundamental mediation point between thought and the world. The world and the subject reflect and flow into each other through the body that provides the living bond with the world. Notions of 'object' and 'subject', 'nature' and 'consciousness' are dialectically related moments of a totality which is constituted through the Being of the body in the world. The body constitutes a way of relating to, perceiving and understanding the world.31

This relationship between the body and the world engages all the receptive complexities of

our living body. Meaning then is constantly being formulated through the immersive and

embodied act of moving and ‘being’ in the world. Tilley emphasises this reflexive act of

perception, arguing that ‘we see with the whole body, just as we think with our (whole)

body, rather than part of it’.32_{Tilley uses the term ‘the asymmetry of difference’ to describe}

a continuum of variation between subject and object, and between the sentient and

non-sentient nature of space and the environment.33_{Tilley developed this term from}

Merleau-Ponty’s thesis of reversibility, in which Merleau-Ponty highlights the cycles and exchanges

which occur between the lived body and the world.34_{The asymmetry of difference is an}

important concept in my research as it explains how my relationship with Moreton Island is

formed out of an evolving, immersive and embodied act. In Chapters Two, Three and Four, I

apply the concept of asymmetry and reversibility to describe the correspondence between

artist and material during the process of making.

30_{Christopher Tilley, The Materiality of Stone- Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology (Berg: Oxford, 2004),}

18.

31_{Ibid, 18.} 32_{Ibid, 19.} 33_{Ibid, 19.}

(32)

19 Moreton Island: A Topography

Moreton Island is a unique natural environment which lies 58 kilometres northeast off the

Queensland capital, Brisbane. The third largest sand island in the world, it represents one of

the most outstanding records of continuing geological, geomorphological and biological

processes that formed the sand island masses of South East Queensland.35_{In addition to}

these unique environmental characteristics, Moreton Island has a history of human

occupation which has continued for over two thousand years. It can be defined as a

complete ecological unit that functions as a natural system without human intervention. The

natural dune processes of erosion, accretion, stabilisation by vegetation and the

development and infilling of lakes and swamps on Moreton Island has continued relatively

undisturbed by human activities. The whole of Moreton Island is national park (other than

5% which are freehold areas such as townships) and is protected under the Nature

Conservation Act of 1992. Together with Fraser Island, Moreton Island forms the largest

sand structure in the world.36

While understanding the geology and human history of Moreton Island enriched my

knowledge of place, this information is not in the scope of my research. Instead, this

knowledge exists as a factual indication of time, change and impermanency. Together with

the islands natural dune processes make the island a mutable topography which advances in

the present while simultaneously resonating with memory.

Fieldwork: From a Topography into Discursive Terrain

I would generally state that artists who leave their studio for another place where they can

research, record and respond are engaging in fieldwork. Depending on the situation,

fieldwork could be a short-term activity lasting hours or a significant project lasting years.

While fieldwork techniques vary across disciplines, they all necessitate methods of

35_{Frank McBride, et. al., Brisbane: 150 Stories. (Brisbane: Brisbane City Council, 2009), 262–263.}

http://www.visitmoretonisland.com/about. (accessed September 4, 2016).

36_{The Aboriginal name for Moreton Island is Moorgumpin meaning 'place of sandhills'. Extensive site surveys}

(33)

20

recording, interpreting and responding. Fieldwork involves the collection of raw data

gathered from first-hand observation and experience. Fieldwork data is generally analysed,

interpreted and presented in other formats after the fieldwork has concluded. At the

beginning of this research project I define my past twenty years of returning to Moreton

Island as conducting fieldwork. This was done to avoid connecting the project to one specific

place (Moreton Island). This decision instantly shifted the project into ideas involving the

place-remembered, and this first body of research investigated how I could formulate a

sculptural response to a remembered place. The outcome of compartmentalising twenty

years of experience in one place as fieldwork forced me to evaluate raw data to extract a

methodology to take forward into the project.

While this long association with place was an important factor in forming the research topic,

I wanted the project to have a view forward, rather than retrospectively examine a history

of my connection to place. Defining artistic practice as fieldwork was a way to categorise,

analyse and archive past artwork. This activity also confirmed that the main focus of the

project would not be located in a place, but in the memory of place. To move forward I

needed to investigate the concept of the place-remembered in the studio. This investigation

culminated in an eclectic collection of made and found objects. Every item was in a state of

wear, change and decay. I displayed these things in one room as an installation. The

installation was intended to open up my field of inquiry by exploring the concept of place,

not as a geographic location, but as a site of memory. Through the made and the found, the

mutability of matter and material was explored in as many ways as possible, for its potential

to reveal unchartered, discursive terrain.

The Materiality of Memory (2015)

The first body of practice-led research takes the form of an installation titled The Materiality

of Memory (fig. 2). The installation comprises of a diverse collection of materials and objects

inspired by place. In a material sense the installation is an accretion of weathered surfaces

and forms, intended to engage the viewer bodily by inviting direct physical contact with the

senses of sight, touch and sound. The line of investigation I followed was to see if an

encounter with the mutable nature of a variety of materials could embody Moreton Island

(34)

21

objects, fragments and works on paper as a multilayered and hybrid-media work. The

provenance of some of the materials has been considered for their direct association with

Moreton Island. However, as objects they carry no specific agency or meaning explaining

this. Some objects can be associated with certain types of landscapes such as the coastline,

but the installation avoids any direct reference to place. All the items were produced in the

studio under the framework of the place-remembered. There were no tangible objects or

materials explored from the fieldwork explained earlier, only a philosophy of change and

impermanency.

Weathered objects and fragments already suggest temporality, change and decay. Part of

my methodology was to use materials already imbued with patina and evidencing the wear

of time. However, I also made sculptures and objects which I weathered and affected in the

studio. Weathering an object or sculpture, implied the loss of information that may have

once been embedded in the object. Consequently, the object is now in a stage of transition

or becoming. The worn and degraded materials in The Materiality of Memory release some

of their original meaning as well as generate new associations through a process of

deterioration. In this slow decay new associations with time and place are potentially

revealed. This visible process of mutability, waning and decay imbue the installation with a

sense of fading physicality. In his book, Industrial Ruins: Space, aesthetics and materiality,

cultural geographer Tim Edensor likens the concepts of ruination and decay as offering

ghostly glimpses into the past and a tactile encounter with space and materiality. Edensor

describes decay as a slow-motion archaeology that exposes the true nature of matter and

material, producing a defamilarised landscape in which the formerly hidden emerges.37

The Materiality of Memory investigates the potential of weathered materials to reveal an

interior structure, which invites reflection on memory and place. These associations are

made between the inevitable entropic processes of decay and deterioration and the activity

of remembering. The remainder of this chapter explains the conceptual and philosophical

dimensions of the key components of the installation.

(35)

[image:35.595.91.503.417.731.2]

22

Fig. 2. The Materiality of Memory. 2015. Installation view.

(36)

23 The Cape Moreton Lighthouse: axis mundi

In The Materiality of Memory, a 60 centimetre scale version of the Cape Moreton lighthouse

has been carved from limestone (figs. 3 & 4). The lighthouse sits on top of a reclaimed,

truncated fibreglass dome, which adds another 120 cm of height to the lighthouse, placing it

at eye level. Together both objects become a single totemic form, making a strong

connection to the ground as they rise upwards. This work is a simple, perhaps dryly ironic,

material statement; a lighthouse carved from limestone, a material composed of skeletal

fragments of marine organisms. The lighthouse is recognizable and represents place, but

only insofar as making reference to the environment where one finds a lighthouse. I have

used the lighthouse to symbolise a personal marker of place or axis mundi in the installation.

The axis mundi is an object operating as the physical and spiritual centre for a specific

people, religion or belief. It offers a connection between heaven and earth. In a way a

lighthouse is a celestial and geographic pole, expressing a point of connection between sky

and earth where the four compass directions meet.38

Over the duration of my fieldwork on Moreton Island the Cape Moreton Lighthouse became

an orientation point and a welcoming landmark. In the installation the lighthouse assumes a

metaphysical position for its ability to connect the realms of the natural and the cultural.

The architecture and function of the lighthouse also implicate the physical, psychological

and metaphoric dimensions of the lighthouse. In The Materiality of Memory there are other

elements which investigate metaphorical and poetic spatial associations. These elements

include an old wardrobe containing a sound recording, pumice stone, antique plumb bobs,

and two archival plan drawers, one containing sand and broken crockery, and the other a

series of rust on paper artworks.

38_{Mircea Eliade, “Symbolism of the Centre” in Images and Symbols (Princeton: Princeton University Press,}

(37)

[image:37.595.72.525.69.367.2]

24

Fig. 5. Axis Mundi. 2015.

(38)

25

[image:38.595.83.524.78.731.2]

(39)

26

One reclaimed plan drawer’s identification label reads axis mundi, and is used to contain

seven artworks made with rust on paper (fig. 7). The drawer has been made into a table with

four heavily rusted steel legs. The works on paper have been made using metal particles and

salt water, which encourages oxidation and rust. Each work is evenly rusted except for a

more rusted, circular area in the middle of each page. The idea for this circle originated from

the structural footprint on the lighthouse’s architectural plan. Inscribed by hand at the

bottom of each page are words adapted fromLucien Steil’s essay, Metaphysical Archaeology

of Lighthouses (fig. 6).39_{While the use of text is a poetic reference to a lighthouse, the works} themselves are not directly related to place, but to the memory of place, with the rust stains

on the paper acting as a residue or trace, evidence of something which was once there.

Rusting signifies ruination and decay, and the act of turning each of the seven works over

like pages in a book sets up a visual echo through the act of remembering. The axis mundi

works on paper are intended to suggest the bare traces of a form in an imaginary landscape.

The second plan drawer’s identification label reads Provenant Materiality (fig. 9). It is lined

with sand from Moreton Island and littered with fragments of old ceramic and glass. These

fragments were sourced from the sand near the Cape Moreton lighthouse. Some of the

fragments carry the English Willow pattern found on domestic crockery, while others are

fragments of old bottles and jars. This plan drawer relates to human presence and

occupation, but also to a sense of loss evidenced through material fragments. The label

Provenant Materiality, refers to the origin of the contents contained within, and suggests

that the materials have a history and come from a specific place. Together both drawers

become settings for collective remembering, inviting the viewer’s cultural memory to

crystallise around objects, images and material.

Poetic Space

The Materiality of Memory installation investigates material, place and space by engaging a

sculptural, spatial methodology. This spatial methodology is an important part of each

object in the installation including the lighthouse, the wardrobe and the plan drawers, all of

39_{Lucien Steil, “Metaphysical Archaeology of Lighthouses.” American Arts Quarterly, (Spring 2010), Volume 27,}

(40)

[image:40.595.75.526.72.303.2]

27

Fig. 9. Provenant Materiality. 2015. Detail.

[image:40.595.74.522.351.652.2]

(41)

28

which imply stages of material mutability as well as functioning as metaphors for liminal

zones. The largest object in the installation is a small, old, two-door wardrobe. The legs of

the wardrobe have been cut so it tilts back, suggesting it is floating on water or sinking into

sand. The wardrobe is empty of drawers or shelves, and the interior is a painted matt black,

suggesting a cavernous interior. Built into the lower part of the wardrobe and jutting out of

the two partly opened doors is a thin, wood support which holds a field of pumice stone.

Unlike the tilting wardrobe, the support is level. There are two antique plumb bobs

connected to the wardrobe, one hangs on the inside, the other on the outside corner.

Emanating from within the wardrobe is a looped soundscape of ocean and wind, recorded at

the foot of the Cape Moreton lighthouse.

I have explored this wardrobe as a symbolic and metaphoric object loaded with cultural

memory and material which embodies memories of place. The wardrobe I have used is a

humble object with no provenance, leaving itself open (in both senses of the word) to both

personal and collective cultural associations. In his book The Poetics of Space, Gaston

Bachelard explores the metaphysical symbolism of architecture and spatial forms such as

the attic, the cellar and the wardrobe. In considering the wardrobe, Bachelard likens it to the

organs of a secret, psychological life. He refers to wardrobes and drawers as ‘hybrid objects’

or ‘subject objects’, stating that a wardrobe’s inner space, which is deep, is also an intimate

space, and the lock of a wardrobe is a psychological threshold.40_{The wardrobe in The}

Materiality of Memory illustrates Bachelard’s ideas, even though the threshold has been

breached. As a subject-object it embodies both human presence and absence. It is an

invitation, to anyone who remembers a wardrobe, to psychologically enter its intimate and

deep spaces. Having long given up its status as useful household object, the wardrobe is now

a hybrid-object, merged with natural materials, objects and sound. The degraded surfaces

and fading physicality of the assemblage is intended to conjure up an atmosphere of

temporality, change and decay.

(42)

[image:42.595.125.472.69.458.2]

29

Fig. 11. The Materiality of Memory. 2015.