tree conversations: NETWORKING WITH THE WOOD-WIDE-WEB
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A Networks Australia Exhibition
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tree conversations: NETWORKING WITH THE WOOD-WIDE-WEB
19 contemporary visual artists interpret and respond to the theme of trees Wagga Wagga Art Gallery 8th Feb - 3rd May 2020
A Networks Australia Exhibition Editor: Deborah Faeyrglenn ISBN 978-0-646-81447-6 Cover Images left to right: Bev Moxon, detail of Just there, beyond the horizon; Nancy Tingey, detail of As Above-So Below; Monique Van Nieuwland, detail of Wasted. Photographer: Brenton McGeachie.
short history of networks australia The Networks concept, linking artists interested in networking together by sharing skills, resources and exhibitions using net-like materials was developed by Nancy Tingey while making nets in her Strathnairn studio in 2008. This initiative was then taken up by Valerie Kirk at the Australian National University who collaborated with staff at the Universities of Cumbria, UK and Turku, Finland, to create an international project. Exhibitions of nets were held in the Foyer Gallery ANU Canberra and at Lancaster University UK in 2010 culminating in a Nets conference in Turku Finland in October 2011. Other activities ranged from brainstorming and blogging sessions to artist talks, wire netting and bilum making workshops. The ANU textile department in
Canberra has also supported the project by running programs for students to learn and interpret netting techniques. Although many of the participating artists work with textiles they also work freely and experimentally with drawings, sculpture and installation in a variety of media to express issues around the social, political and ecological themes relating to nets and networks. See also: www.netwurks.blogspot.com www.netwurks.wordpress.com www.networksaustralia.blogspot.com
Nancy Tingey is the founding member of Networks Australia.
Other exhibitions: Nets ANU School of Art Gallery Canberra 2010 Nets travelled to Mexico and Barometer Gallery Sydney 2011 Casting the Net Strathnairn Homestead Gallery Canberra 2011 NetWorks Belconnen Arts Centre and TAFTA’s Geelong Forum 2012 Netting Strathnairn in Mapping Strathnairn – Terrain Strathnairn Canberra 2013 Covet 1 Belconnen Arts Centre Foyer, travelled to Bratislava and Amsterdam 2016 Covet 2 Foyer Gallery ANU 2016 Covet 1 & 2 Barometer Gallery Sydney 2016 Trees: As Above/So Below Eucalypt Lawn ANBG Canberra 2017 Trees ANCA Gallery Canberra 2018 4
tree conversations:
networking with the wood-wide-web In recent years Networks Australia has focused on themes explored by Peter Wohlleben in the book The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel and How they Communicate. Some works in this show have been developed for and shown in the group’s exhibitions at the Australian National Botanic Gardens (outdoors) and in the Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA) Gallery, Dickson, ACT. Bringing these works together in Tree Conversations: networking with the woodwide-web is like gathering diverse and opinionated individuals together for a discussion. Each brings a different perspective and adds something new to the conversation. Trees are our inter-dependants in global and local ecosystems; they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen for us to breathe; they are our environmental partners. They feature in our mythologies and are embedded in our psyches. When we think of family trees or branches of science, we are invoking the forms and growth habits of our arboreal companions. We see them as allegories and use them as metaphors for aspects of our own existence. It turns out that trees care for and support fellow family and forest community members just as humans do. This strategy ensures the health of the canopy above and the wellbeing and survival of the collective. In his book, Wohlleben describes subterranean networks of tree roots and symbiotic mycelium, webs
of fungus roots, which provide and share nutrients for plants and relay chemical and electrical messages between them. Suzanne Simard, Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, has shown that trees not only share information about their environment via this means, when under attack, trees manufacture toxic defensive substances and release ethylene gasses into the air to trigger the same actions in neighbouring trees. Electrical impulses generated in trees as a response to predation or damage are measured in millimetres per minute, while nerve impulses in humans are measured in milliseconds. Humans and trees experience time differently and this is perhaps at the root of poetic and philosophic speculation about trees. “When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years,” wrote Herman Hess in Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte (Wandering Notes and Sketches). He continues, “Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They preach,.…. the ancient law of life.
Ann McMahon is a practising visual artist, arts writer and arts administrator. She began writing art reviews for Muse in 1999 and then for the Canberra Times from 2000 to 2004 as well as being published in a variety of art and craft journals and writing commissioned essays. McMahon is currently the Public Programs Officer at Belconnen Arts Centre. 5
The ‘wood-wide-web’ is a term coined by Dr Suzanne Simard talk to referring to the deeply interconnected ways each other above and below ground.
trees
‘When trees burn they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air’ – Jodi Thomas
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networks australia artists Christine Appleby Rachel Develin Wendy Dodd Deborah Faeyrglenn Karyn Fearnside Susan Hey Belinda Jessup Dotti Le Sage Ann McMahon Jenny Manning Beverly Moxon Sharon Peoples Liz Perry Marli Popple Ola Robertson Rozalie Sherwood Nancy Tingey Monique van Nieuwland Katherine White 7
christine appleby christineapplby@yahoo.com I use wire and fibre as my chosen media to demonstrate the rhythms and transience of nature. While there is a predictability to the natural environment, my work reveals a randomness, an unsophisticated organisation and a degree of ambiguity. I focus on ideas of inconsistency, imperfection and irregularity, capturing the ephemeral qualities of the natural world. This suspended installation emulates the path and pace, through a woven network of raw fibre, entwined with copper and stainless-steel wire. The network of lines are doubled and given depth, these figures float capturing a moment in time, cascading strings of bark ribbon curling as they fall to the ground.
Opposite page: detail of Peeling Away Series (I - V), 2018 140 x 300 x 200 cm approx Handwoven, cashmere, cotton, wool, stainless-steel and copper wire. — This page: detail of Peeling Away Series (I - V), 2018 8
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rachel develin rachel@d-indigo.com.au Trees are the lungs of the earth, they make it possible for us all to survive. However, humanity’s treatment of the earth and the effect it has on our forests makes their job of creating oxygen for us harder. Their numbers are diminishing due to deforestation and an increased number of intense bushfires due to climate change. We are the parasites of the planet, choking it with greenhouse gases, plastics and an over-abundance of waste materials. Like mistletoe growing on the branches of a tree, we will eventually drain the life from our host. My arrangements comment on the fragile relationship between humanity and nature and our need to appreciate and respect our trees for life.
Opposite page: Wishing Nest, 2019-20 30 x 20 cm Chicken wishbones, egg whites, feathers. — This page: Milking the Earth (series of 2), 2019-20 30 x 13 x 30 cm and 40 x 22 x 40 cm Milk bottles, wire, mistletoe branch. 10
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wendy dodd wendydodd@hotmail.com There is a symbiotic relationship (conversation) between fungi and trees. A mushroom colony has fruiting bodies supported underground by a web of mycelium. This mycelium provides water and dissolved minerals to the tree roots. Mycelium can be grown and is being researched to provide a natural replacement for many materials such as plastic. The importance of mushrooms and mycelium is growing as we experience the effects of climate change and the country is devastated by fire. Pine forests are particularly susceptible to fire. I have used the mushroom spores to print on fabric and illustrated the mycelium using stitching and stretchable synthetic web.
Opposite page: detail of Magic Mycelium, 2019 100 x 89 cm Nature print on canvas with synthetic stretchable web. — This page: detail of Pine Forest, 2019 Also in this exhibition: Mushroom Mycelium, 2019 82 x 90 cm Nature print on canvas with machine stitching. 12
46 x 61 cm Pine cone pieces on artist board. — Photographer: Josephine Cosgrove
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deborah faeyrglenn faeyrglenn@gmail.com Science is revealing what indigenous communities and poets have long known: trees are connected and communicating via vast underground symbiotic networks of tree-root and fungal thread (mycelium). Trees share water, sugars and chemical information about threat of disease or insect invasion with nearby trees of same species and even with other species of trees. Older ‘hub’ trees have memory of chemicals they can use to repel threatening insects and diseases. Sharing helps the trees survive tough times but the sharing web can also pass on deadly new diseases. By installing a tree-root and mycelium web from the gallery ceiling I am tipping our above-ground perception of trees upside down – revealing the underworld of trees and the intertwined relationship between trees and humans. Coiling, stitching and knitting are processes that mirror the slow-time of tree-life. This artwork took two years to weave, stitch and knit. Opposite page: Underground Forest: sharing water, sharing danger, 2018-19 270 x 300 x 200 cm (overall) Rafia, recycled cloth, silk and cotton thread, found metal objects. — This page: detail of Underground Forest: sharing water, sharing danger, 2018-19 14
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karyn fearnside kferny@hotmail.com While planting trees to combat rising CO2 emissions is to be commended let’s be clear that babies cannot do the job of adults. Trees are being bulldozed in unprecedented numbers due in part to revoking of land clearing laws allowing farmers to create more pasture for livestock. This work is my response to ever increasing inaction on environmental destruction including the refusal to address climate change by our current crop of politicians. Coal seems to be front and foremost as whole species of flora and fauna are wiped out in front of our eyes. The shirt sleeves are adorned with threatened species including the tiny Spiral Leaved Sun Orchid, our iconic Koala and the Imperial Hairstreak Butterfly like some kind of grotesque badge of honour further authenticated by the cuff link embellishments.
Opposite page: Left wing/Right wing (series 2 Bulldozer Cufflinks), 2019-20 Dimensions variable Tablecloth, cotton embroidery, dye, cufflinks. — This page: detail of Left wing/Right wing (series 2 Bulldozer Cufflinks), 2019-20 16
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susan hey eternityde@iimetro.com.au While taking time to be still in the environment and notice the beauty of trees, I feel a connection, a type of liminal communication from the trees, hence a series of related works networked together by a similar theme and metaphor. Each work looks at communicating with trees, their movement and their sounds, in an attempt to interpret their messages in different mediums by using threads, drawings, and body movements. In Contemplation/Connection, (2019), I’ve become fascinated by the movement of dappled light and the patterns it makes on the ground, noticing the unique shapes and constant movement. In the Tree Drawings: the difference in the weather 1,2,3 (2018) series, the trees have drawn their messages to me, once I provided the way.
Also in this exhibition: Tree Drawings: the difference in the weather 1,2,3, 2018 106 x 78 cm Graphite, charcoal.
For Messages from Trees (2017), I explored the notion of interpreting the communications of trees, by drawing their messages on the ground with paint, using me as the drawing machine.
Opposite page: Contemplation/Connection, 2019
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Dimensions variable Jute, silk, wool.
Messages from Trees,2017
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Video 25 minutes continuous loop.
This page: detail of Contemplation/Connection, 2019
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belinda jessup Belindajessup@hotmail.com Canopy shyness is where the tops of trees do not touch, they leave space that appears as intermittent blurred lines around them. Trees communicate with each other the same as humans do. Tree Conversations reflects an intimate relationship between humans and trees. I asked different artists “if you could have a conversation with a tree what would you say”? Tree Conversations is the result of real conversations and one imagined. These stitched conversations are private and not meant to be read or heard by others, hence the text in these Tree Conversations is blurred lines.
Opposite page: detail of Conversations, 2018 Dimensions variable Polyester machine embroidery threads, water soluble fabric. — This page: detail of Conversations, 2018 20
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dotti le sage palomalesage@gmail.com Through photographic imagery I am repeatedly drawn to the sentinel, sculptural and textural quality of trees. I am compelled to scrutinize and reconnoiter with them. My two works investigate our interaction and symbiotic relationships with trees. Trees can provide the perfect sanctuary from the built environment. ‘Shelter from the storm’ of life, an esprit de corps during meditation and a prescription for healing. These works search for and explore our ceremonial, social and medicinal connections with trees. The images are built up of different layers and small three dimensional objects symbolizing the many ways we utilise trees. Picnic for the Trees offers a small restitution and a chance to pay homage to the largest plants on the planet earth.
Opposite page: Picnic for the Trees, 2020 100 x 80 cm Print on fabric, porcelain paper clay. — This page: Intercontinental Picnic,2020 100 x 80 cm Print on fabric, porcelain paper clay. 22
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ann mcmahon ann.mcmahon@belconnenartscentre.com.au My Growth Rings are stitched spirals; a symbol I use to suggest the passage of time and to compare and contrast human experience and that of trees’. Clothing and bark protect their wearers from the elements and they are significant in terms of aesthetics, recognition and interaction. I have chosen to work with body coverings, recycled clothing and domestic textiles, as a means of evoking connections between skin and bark. My work compares the life of a tree and the life of a human being. And while they can be seen as very different, trees are none-the-less our partners in spirit and in global ecologies.
Opposite page: Growth Rings (series of 5), 2018-19 1. 65 cm 2. 50 cm 3. 95 cm 4. 50 cm 5. 65 cm diameter 60 x 555 cm overall Recycled clothing and domestic textiles, waxed linen thread. — This page: detail of Growth Rings (series of 5), 2018-19 1300 x 700 cm Tulle. 24
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jenny manning jennymanning@grapevine.net.au Every tree begins with a seed. A seed contains all the genetic information to create the most complex and important growing plants in the world. My wall piece is made from a number of crocheted seed pod shapes using fine copper wire. They are connected together to form an oval form 75cm wide by 100 cm tall. I am interested in the patterns and the shadows that these crocheted seed pods cast on the wall as well as the way repetition of a small form can create a larger form of identical shape - a structural system often found in botany. I am also interested in interpreting this imagery in two dimensions. This large black and white pen and ink drawing explores the complex botanical structure of the Kurrajong tree.
Opposite page: Seed Pod, 2019 100 x 75 cm Copper wire. — This page: detail of Kurrajong, 2019 67 x 85 cm framed Pen and ink on paper. 26
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beverly moxon beverly.moxon@gmail.com I grew up playing amongst the woods and creeks of a small town in North Carolina. Those early experiences enriched my childhood and have influenced the way in which I think about the natural world. Now as an artist, I find the diversity of Australia’s landscape a continual source of inspiration for my art. I use many different materials in my work but my textile background always brings me back to working with fabrics and fibres. In this work, I consider trees as both witness and document of our shared history and examine the uniquely tactile language of bark. Fabrics dyed with eucalyptus and walnut are over-painted with acrylics and slashed to reveal many layers, representing bark’s slow and layered growth. Each mark and variation in texture can be read as part of a narrative of survival, suffering and change.
Opposite page: Just there, beyond the horizon – Series 2, 2019 Dimensions variable Eco dyed and painted recycled fabrics, threads and found objects. — This page: Just there, beyond the horizon – Series 1, 2019 Dimensions variable Eco dyed and painted recycled fabrics, threads and cardboard tubes. 28
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sharon peoples peoples@grapevine.com.au Each November, the noise of birds in the Silky Oak on my front lawn is astounding. They work away as I set off for my early morning walks. It was during this daily exercise that helped bring about a great shift of thinking in my work. I had been making lace-like textile structures that spoke of fragility, both personally and within the environment. However, the notion of lace as a verb, rather than a noun was germane to new thinking. I began to think of lace, as in to poison, to contaminate or to intentionally lace a drink or food. On my walks I observed many domestic garden plants that were toxic to humans. I began making works of bodies that were laced with toxic plants. It took many months to realise that this tree in my front garden was a candidate: the sap, the pollen, the raw timber all have properties toxic to many humans, but not these birds. The structure of the leaves and flowers became part of the conversation of lace.
Opposite page: Laced With Grevillea Robusta, 2018 142 x 84 cm Rayon polyester thread. — This page: Grevillea Robusta Mandala, 2018 82 cm diameter Rayon polyester thread. 30
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liz perry garnet@fastmail.com Arboretum: a collection of trees and shrubs that are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes. From tiny saplings evenly spaced in orderly rows and contained within their defined plots, as they grow the trees form their own community. They endure droughts and freezing temperatures in a harsh landscape, but one that does not allow random growth - each species must flourish within its plot. These works reflect such a community of trees within our Australian landscape.
Opposite page: Arboretum, Seasons I, 2019 128 x 50 cm Woven cotton/linen. — This page: Arboretum, Seasons II, 2019 80 x 25 cm Woven cotton/linen. 32
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marli popple marli@popple.net Ideas develop and unfold through researching – new insights, appreciation and wonder of trees and the life force they embody. The spaces between the crowns let light and air surround the tree for it to survive. The leaves of the crown are like solar panels; they absorb carbon dioxide; and they filter out pollution, catching pollen and dust. Trees are vital to our existence. They adapt, endure, survive and regenerate. Co-existence of man and nature is important for our survival.
Opposite page: Crown (series of 6), 2018 Dimensions variable Sculptured polyester organza, arashi shibori. — This page: detail of Crown (series of 6), 2018 34
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ola robertson ola.robertson@bigpond.com Skeletons of the Forest is a metaphor showing the trees vulnerability to the climate as the environment struggles between drought and fire, making the battle for the trees’ survival tenuous. During their annual cycle, trees give back to the environment by covering the soil with a blanket of fallen bark and leaves, feeding the roots as they disintegrate. Water is pivotal to this sequence, but an unstable climate threatens to destroy this fragile eco system. Trees no longer healthy will be left with burnt and scorched trunks, bereft of foliage, standing with their bare branches poking upwards like eerie ghosts struggling for survival. I am passionate about fabric manipulation using diverse techniques and processes to transform fabric and paper into distinct textile pieces, using these to demonstrate the importance trees are to this fragile planet.
Opposite page: Skeletons of the Forest, 2019 Installation of three hanging panels Left 130 x 20 cm; Centre 220 x 100 cm; Right 130 x 20 cm Cotton Voile, synthetic netting, polyester thread; Rust dyed, stitched and screen printed with devore paste; Silk and recycled electrical wire; Eucalyptus and Prunus leaves with iron mordant, various threads. — This page: detail of Skeletons of the Forest, 2019 36
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rozalie sherwood rozalie.sherwood@gmail.com Genesis 2.9 ‘The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food…..’ In this work I reflect on the harmony between us and nature. For safety, my neighbours had two tall trees felled. I came home to one of my large trees, 25 metres away, lying on the ground. Its roots were exposed and its branches draped across the footpath and onto the road. It shocked me that human action on one tree had probably caused the death of another. Connected in a manner we still don’t fully understand, perhaps the loss of its neighbours had caused it to give up? So ended many years of childhood play. A favourite for children and then grandchildren, its huge forks sheltered them and their toys. Its protective arms, beauty and role in the soil were lost. And missed by me.
Opposite page: Tree of Life, 2017 250 x 40 cm Recycled fabrics (including sari fabric), metal frame and vinyl tubing. — This page: detail of Tree of Life, 2019 38
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nancy tingey nancytingey@googlemail.com This is part of a series in which I explore the potential of cable sheathing, a material used in communication technology, a form of networking. The cabling in this installation depicts tree branches and root forms as interconnecting elements, representing the ways in which trees communicate with one another, both above and below ground. I first discovered cable sheathing in an electrical recycling outlet in Turku while at the Nets conference in 2011 and have been playing with it ever since, being fascinated by the nature of materials.
Opposite page: detail of As Above – So Below I and II, 2019 215 x 50 cm each Polyester cable sheathing on reflective acrylic sheeting. — This page: detail of As Above – So Below I and II, 2019 40
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monique van nieuwland monique.van.nieuwland@gmail.com Forests are complex biological systems which support flora and fauna, provide shade, clean air and store carbon. This installation addresses how, in one fell swoop, forests all over the world are being wiped out. The wood harvested often ends up in low value, single use products. One can destroy in mere minutes what took decennia, or even centuries, to grow. I created this installation to portray the eerie, haunting beauty of this wastefulness. Bark and skin are protective layers around a living organism. They show personality, experience, life, endurance and time. Trees protect us, we in turn need to protect trees. Woven cloth embraces our bodies like a second skin. With that in mind, I wove images of bark and skin and placed them next to each other, to highlight how much skin and bark have in common.
Also in this exhibition: Bark Skin - Folds & Skin Bark – Folds, 2019
Opposite page: detail of Wasted, 2019
43 x 33 cm each Handwoven Jacquard, silk warp, cotton weft.
Installation of 65 individual components varying between 12-20 cm (h) and 14-20 cm diameter Domestic waste paper/cardboard singeing.
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Bark Skin - Scar & Skin Bark - Scar, 2019
This page: Bark Skin - Notch and Skin Bark – Notch, 2019
43 x 33 cm each Handwoven Jacquard, silk warp, cotton weft.
43 x 33 cm each Handwoven Jacquard, silk warp, cotton weft.
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katherine white whitekatherine1@gmail.com The understory of plant life on the forest floor is varied in species, and in interaction with surrounding trees. Supporting each other through intricate webs, all flourish when in balance. My drawings deal with the details of plants seen close up. Drawing outside in the forest, many things previously overlooked, are noticed. The insects, the sound and flight of birds, seeds and nuts fallen to the ground, the weather. By drawing the delicate relationships in the forest a greater connection is experienced. The vitality or life force of plants replenishes me.
Also in this exhibition: Into the Forest soundscape, 2018 15 minute representation of one day in the Sand Bangalay Forest where I live. This soundscape was made in collaboration with Magella Blinksell. I drew on her expertise with equipment, editing and sound projection. I also wish to acknowledge Avventura 2046 from the Freesound community - Rural Night Atmosphere, 2012 - for a short segment incorporated into this sound recording. Attribution: Non Commercial licence. 44
Opposite page: Into the Forest, 2019 620 x 125 cm Stencil print on paper using spray paint. The beauty of the forest is celebrated as shadow patterns, sunlight and all who dwell within. — This page: Plant Life, 2019 8 drawings, each drawing 35 x 23 cm Watercolour paper and soft charcoal.
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acknowledgments We acknowledge the Wiradjuri people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we exhibit our artworks. We pay respect to Elders of the Wiradjuri Nation, past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all First Nations people. May we learn from them how to respect and care for this land. Thank you to the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. We appreciate the curatorial skill involved in presenting such a diverse range of works and we thank you for answering our many questions along the way. Finally thank you to our family and friends for their support, encouragement and patience.
THANK YOU Jo Long (Chambers Whyte)
Catalogue Design
Chambers Whyte Design and Print
Printing and Production
Brenton McGeachie
Artwork Photography
Josephine Cosgrove
Artwork Photography
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
SUPPORTED BY
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is a cultural facility of Wagga Wagga City Council. Wagga Wagga Art is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW. 46
ŠNetworks Australia Tree Conversations: networking the wood wide web All information and material in this project is copyright. All rights are reserved. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction should be addressed to the editor Deborah Faeyrglenn faeyrglenn@gmail.com or one of the artists listed in the catalogue. 47