Dreaming Bed

Butchers paper. Books. Many books. On Chinese art and symbols, Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory, history of China, history of Australia. Texta. Blutac. Pins. String. Brainstorming. The art of painting landscape and dreams. Time and space. Slow and quick. Big and small. 

A room with a view of a rock wall ("audacious wall") and trees. Trees. Many trees. And birds, millipedes, skinks, moths and butterflies. And down the hill a river. A glassy mirror. 

Contemplation of the changing light. Much staring into the bush. The hold of landscape on the imagination. Nature the bridge for a meeting across cultures, a recognition, a heart's knowing. Nature a mirror in which the familiar is reflected anew...

Two artists. Two paintings. Beds in the landscape. Young girls in white dresses disappearing through trees. The start of an idea. A bed in the bush.  How do we get the bed in the bush? Rain is forecast. A change of plan. A bed in a dark room, an intimate space - a dreaming space. A film and a Chinese lullaby. A book lies open on the bed. A pipe rests nearby - a discovered pipe, a Chinese miner's pipe dug from the soft earth by the river - a young girl's bounty immersed in story. Then a glimpse through the break in the curtains to red Chinese lanterns and a white dress disappearing through the trees - a young girl running away with her dream.

The beginnings of a story evoked, suggested. A work in progress. 

(As a result of almost two weeks residence through the Laughing Waters Artist in Residence Program at Birrarung, myself and Anna have the beginnings of Digging a Hole to China, an exciting new performance/installation project in the Australian landscape. As part of the residency we also had the opportunity to present a work in progress installation to delegates of Parks Victoria's Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress on Wed 14 April.)