2017 Glencore Children’s Exhibition
27 October 2017 – 21 January 2018
Flora and Oceanarium, the two bodies of work in this exhibition, question our methods of negotiating the natural world. We are thrown in at the deep end and brought face to face with the uncanny and our fear of being alone in the dark unsure of what we may discover. As in many a thriller or fairy tale, the lights are out. A torch is our lifeline, illuminating largely unknown worlds within our world. The enigmatic soundtrack created by Tim Umney adds to this atmosphere, luring us deeper into the exhibition space.
And what do we discover? Karen has skilfully created enchanted environments evocative of these worlds, one on land and the other in the darkest depths of the ocean. Plants and creatures in each are knitted and embroidered onto fine black net and camouflaged in the darkened gallery atmosphere. The thread is reflective and barely visible until the viewer’s torchlight hits. When it does, life-forms appear, glowing silver and hovering spiritlike before the viewer. The delicacy and fragility of the natural world is apparent in the fine needlework and detail of the floating forms.
Karen has chosen to depict extinct, rare or endangered indigenous species in both Flora and Oceanarium, giving added poignancy to these ghostly apparitions. As a fellow resident of orchid-rich southwest Victoria, I am particularly drawn to Karen’s inclusion of orchid species. According to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act, over
a third of the sixty-two Australian flora listed as critically endangered are orchids. A close study reveals the intricacies of environmental conditions that support them and the detailed web of life that must be preserved for precious native flora and fauna to survive. As Chief Seattle famously pointed out in his Letter to the President of the United States in 1852:
“
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
Mellblom’s Spider Orchid Caladenia hastata, is a great example of this interdependence of living things. Existing naturally only in southwest Victoria, it was known as poyn poyn nyaneen eaneeyt to indigenous people who once used its tubers as
a food source. Its growth depends upon nutrients from microscopic mycorrhizal fungus living in the soil. Seeds must make contact with this fungus to germinate. A particular species of male wasp (Lestricothynnus nr. vigilans) is required for pollination. To attract it, the orchid flower emits pheromones that mimic those of a female wasp. The orchid labellum has evolved to provide visual stimulation. Male wasps generally fly around the height of orchid flowers, so regular fires are needed to keep heathland plants low. The female wasp is flightless, spends most of her life underground, and lays her eggs only on scarab beetle larvae. In spite of all these very particular requirements a viable colony of Mellblom’s Spider Orchid has survived, although it now depends on hand pollination as its natural wasp pollinator has itself become rare.
In both Flora and Oceanarium, Karen’s finely crafted detail draws our attention to the beauty of such indigenous species, reminding us of precious environments in our neighbourhoods that are largely unseen, their invisibility making them all the more vulnerable.
Oceanarium is inspired by the Bonney Upwelling - the largest, most predictable upwelling in southern Australia occurring annually between November and April along the coast from Robe in South Australia to Port Campbell in Victoria. Nutrient-rich cool waters rise to the surface from depths of more than 300 metres allowing many marine creatures to
thrive. Endangered Blue Whales, the largest creatures ever to have lived, are attuned to this seasonal abundance and come to feed on the swarms of tiny coastal krill swimming near the surface. Indeed, the Bonney Upwelling provides one of only two known feeding grounds for Blue Whales in Australian waters. Strange creatures are also stirred in the largely unchartered ocean depths beyond the edge of the Continental Shelf that at twenty kilometres off shore, is closer to land here than anywhere else around our coastline. The intriguing forms that live in this deep-water marine environment are the focus of Oceanarium.
The deep sea is by far the largest habitat on the planet. And one of the harshest: cold, dark, often low in vital oxygen, and under pressure so immense it alters the very chemistry of cells. Yet everywhere we look we are finding life, sometimes in extraordinary abundance (New Scientist 12 Nov. 2005)
Karen worked closely with Deakin University marine biologists to recreate the deep underwater world of Oceanarium. In doing so she aimed to develop awareness and appreciation of deep-water lifeforms. Sometimes when you are at the beach you don’t even realise that there are environments that are really different from each other but so close together.
. . . It’s quite amazing that a lot of the areas of the deep ocean are completely uncharted . . . four kilometres below the water is still a mystery. (Karen Richards 2016)
Many fish of the deep lead a solitary existence and often look like cartoon characters with their small bodies and very big mouths and teeth. They even have names like Hatchet, Tripod, Viper, and Fang-tooth to match! The Gulper Eel has an enormous mouth with a body like a long deflated balloon which can expand when it finds a rare meal. Some, such as squid and jelly fish, have bio-luminesce which allows them to shine bright silver or pulse in a range of vivid
colours. Fish such as the Angler use phosphorescence as a lure to attract their prey. Other creatures featured in Oceanarium include Amphipods, Copepods, Ostracods, Sea lilies, Tube worms, White Crabs, Giant Squid and Brittle Stars. Risks to life in the ocean and on land are many. As a species we have unraveled connections to the world around us and are experiencing an acceleration in environmental changes on a global scale. Recognition of our relationship to the natural world and the often devastating consequences of human intervention in the environment is critical, especially as global warming has become the major challenge facing the planet. Through Flora and Oceanarium Karen Richards draws our focus back to the natural world; to the disappearance of species and forests; to humanity’s current position at the cross roads in dealing with an untenable environmental scenario. In many ways we are in the dark, shining our torches into the future and hoping to negotiate environmental degradation and global warming in time to survive.
Dr Carmel Wallace, August 2017