24hrART, Darwin 2007
solo exhibition*
s
t r a t a t h e l a y e r e d l a n d
This was the layered land. All the times that had happened before
were there in layers…The land was deceptive, lulling the unwary with an ancient
poise. The land looked solid
enough but Lara knew to take nothing as a given, treading very carefully on
this journey across it. There was
no chance of the country not taking what it was owed or forgiving her
transgressions.[1]
Alice
Springs artist Bek Mifsud* traces the threads that link her own journeys over the
last decade to those of others who have and who continue to feel compelled to
travel to the centre. She explores
the concept of a collective experience of place, of transformation and how this
landscape in particular affects those who travel here.
In
strata the layered land fragmented texts from explorers,
naturalists, artists, writers and her own journals overlap as paths and
thoughts are crossed, merged, and erased; the artist’s process creating a
palimpsest of experiences held by the land. Histories are erased and written
over, yet never completely, for ‘this was the layered land…all the times
that had happened before were there in layers’[2].
Juxtaposed
against this landscape of text is a large-scale geologic rubbing from the
ancient strata of the Amadeus Basin, an inland sea that dominated Central
Australia between 950 and 450 MYA. This monoprint was made directly from
fossilized ripple marks of the long evaporated ocean floor and seems to possess
a great weight, both in its physical scale and in its reference to geologic
time. Its solid archetypal form
contrasts ‘the sheer age of this weathered land [with]
the tenuousness of human interaction with the environment’[3].
This
is layered land, ancient geologies laid bare, eroded, exposed, this land holds
the stories of those who have travelled, the strata of memory[4].
In
ocean songs graphite rubbings are taken from the 900 MY
ripple formations of the Armadeus Basin that are a striking geologic feature of
the Macdonnell Ranges. These
rubbings are combined to create a paradoxical ocean, which becomes a metaphor
for such journeys. This inland sea
is deliberately positioned on the gallery floor, encouraging the viewer to look
down from above and experience an aerial landscape that echoes the sand dunes
of the Simpson Desert.
Floating
delicately upon this ocean are numerous paper boats, created from prints of the
journals of those who also have made the pilgrimage from the edge to the
centre. Amongst these boats are
those created with Mifsud’s own images and writings as she considers the
threads that link those who have and those who continue to be drawn to this
place.
[4] Schama Simon, quoted in
Mackay, Mary All That Mighty Mass of Rock; Art and Australia Vol 31.No 3 1994 pp345-6
*under previous name Bek Mifsud