high tide (folly)

High Tide (folly), was a temporary installation in the Understory Art & Nature Trail as part of Resonance: Dialogues in Art and Ecology, 29 November to 1 February. The exhibition featured 16 atists, members of the Australian ecoartspace dialogues. The installation was an attempt to connect local living at Niergarup (East Fremantle) with the forests of Northcliffe. You can hear a description of when and why it was made here. Big thanks to Lee Harrop and Forest Keegel who helped me to put it all together on site.

“For a long time I have been interested in manifestations of ecofolly: lack of good sense; foolishness, a foolish act, idea, or practice in our world. What could be more foolish than the infinitely slow motion rise in sea level (the tide that king Canute (Knut) sitting in a chair at the shore rails against in popular folklore)? Originally inspired by 18th century English upperclass follies of excess and the then State Premier in 2012 (and might I say the inaction of every Premier since) but the figure in the second chair represents the everyday eco blindness of us all. The third chair (essentially, an invisible watcher) completes the appeal to lack of foresight on multiple levels.
Folly: ‘madness’, or in modern French also ‘delight, favourite dwelling’”

Resonance: Dialogues in Art and Ecology brought together 16 leading Australian artists to amplify the voices of more-than-human worlds. Works were featured on the trail and in the Painted Tree gallery at Southern Forest Arts

Curated by Sharmila Wood, the exhibition features artists Natarsha Bates, Renata Buziak, Susan Hauri-Downing, Tabbil Forest, Kim V Goldsmith, Catherine Higham, Heidi Kenyon, Linda Knight, Forest Keegel, Annette Nykiel, Perdita Phillips, Debbie Symons, Cassandra Tytler, Clarice Yuen, WhiteFeather Hunter, and Kate Goff.
Through sound, fibre, film, installation, and sculpture, Resonance gives voice to worms, fungi, beetles, seeds, fibre, barnacles, lichens, wind, birdsong, heartbeats, rain, and soil. From the granular and microscopic to planetary systems, the works gathered here highlight ecological interdependence and call audiences to listen, respond, and engage.
Resonance situates Australian practice within the ecoartspace transnational platform based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded in 1997 by Patricia Watts to support artists, scientists, and advocates addressing environmental issues.
“Artists are like scientists, making the invisible visible and offering new ways of thinking about human impact on ecosystems.” – Patricia Watts, Founder, ecoartspace
This project is proudly supported by the State Government of WA.”

High Tide (folly)

Artist Statement

You come across three chairs in a forest: one suspended from a tree, one pseudo colonial chair close by, and the third, in distant conversation with the other two, is made of flimsy plant material, decaying over time.

This is High Tide (folly), mixing pasts with future options both absurd and frightening: one chair, barnacled with corks, floats as a folly or warning of the time ahead. Nearby, you can take a seat for a moment—you are the present person, asked to dwell on what might be coming next. Away, out of sight, are the traces of those wise ones who watch.

The corks were collected from Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River), in Niergarup, an area already subject to storm surges, but Northcliffe is 104 metres above sea level, and the absurdity of a chair up a tree is a metaphor for the unearthly and irresponsible behaviour of Western culture. The work began with rubbish collected over 21 years from East Fremantle streets and Derbarl Yerrigan, combined with gathered, site specific sticks and grasses.

If all the ice in the world melted in the future, Niergarup would be under water. Northcliffe would still be 44 metres above sea level, but even that would still be climatically devastating for the southern forests. The spaces between (times, places and chairs) creates connections between present and future and asks you—and others—to put yourselves into the ecological equation