Zine Draft

A ‘zine page

could look …

A Sort of Sieve

I have been interested in the notion of sieves for some time – the separating of good from bad, coarse from fine, liquid from solids. It also has connotations with mining the land, what’s left? A pile of waste, waterless creeks and huge dislocation of landscape and of people trying to farm the land – Liz Jeneid

Pangasianodon Gigas

Sketchbook - ideas development

The giant Mekong Catfish is under threat of extinction due to over-fishing and loss of habitat. It is beleived that the fish used to reach sizes over 3 metres, but the largest recorded catch to date is 2.7 metres – a monster fish caught in Thailand in 2005. As its fame and the mythology surrounding it increases, so does the number of game fishermen keen to land a record catch or earn a sizeable amount of money in the exotic food marketplace.

However, the water flow of the river is increasingly more controlled by China, changing the natural habitat of the river. It seems that survival of the great catfish is being left to chance and the fish’s ability to avoid nets, lines and traps in the murky green waters of the Mekong.

My exhibition piece will be a giant, woven Pangasianodon Gigas – made as a shaped tapestry which will hang the way a fisherman would hold up his catch to display or be photographed as his trophy. The drawing was made from photographs of very large fish I observed in Laos and the detail on the body of the fish is deliberately ambiguous scales/nets.  The piece will be woven on cotton seine twine (which was originally made as a string for fish netting) with mixed weft yarns.

Detail of digital print enlargement of original drawing which will be used to make a cartoon for the tapestry.

Valerie Kirk

net bowls

Memory is personal and unique to each of us. It is our own interpretation and recollection, a sensation sometimes so fleeting that we cannot find words to name it - a vague feeling, a trace of something we know but cannot touch, hidden under semi-transparent layers, distorted. . . . . . . . . .

I like to believe that my net bowls are filters that can capture and preserve precious snippets of memory – not lots of detail, but more a warmth that links our past and present.

Here are a few images of my ceramic knitting bowls. I’ve been playing with ways of displaying them, but think I’ll go with elevated glass on a long low plinth to incorporate the shadows and reflections.

Batnet

This poor wee creature was unfortunate to be trapped in the chicken wire.   Imagine it’s plight when it couldn’t free itself, and the agony of being pinned in the wire net.   How often do we find ourselves in situations where we feel trapped by our way of life and feel we cannot escape, it envelops us in our minds and lives, often ending like the bat in death.

Root Network

Network of Roots

Looking back to  my grass-roots in North Carolina, I realised that the pine woods behind our home was the catalyst for an appreciation of  nature, which I have carried with me to this day.  I have enjoyed a life where I have lived in some beautiful locations.  Each landscape was inspiring in it’s uniqueness, from the rugged cliffs and waterfalls of the Blue Mountains and the tranquility of  the river in Tasmania’s  Derwent  Valley to  the small inlets and bays of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel.  Now I find myself in country New South Wales where an unfamiliar and at times harsh landscape requires me to put down roots once again.

When I arrived  three years ago the local landscape was struggling to survive and many plants had  succumbed to the effects of the drought.  Fallen branches and exposed roots collected from my own garden are combined with native grasses and waxed threads.  Nurturing, healing and caring for the environment are concepts symbolised by the intricate twining and knotting which protect the surfaces of the forms.   The root series not only comments on the need to care for the environment but also on my need to establish new networks and connections with others in a new landscape.

Beware of Nets!

My friend Beryl Rule, a Melbourne journalist sent me this salutary tale:

“Nets are malevolent things, lying in dark, forgotten piles on garage shelves, biding their time, waiting to ensnare you. I pulled my three garden nets down a few weeks ago so that I could protect the fruit on my nectarine tree from onslaughts by the birds. The tree is not high, but extremely widespread, and it requires three nets, fastened together with clothes pegs, to cover all the branches.

Over the winter and spring the mesh piles had somehow become intricately coiled and connected, impossible to separate. Snaking out, they encircled every button on my cardigan; clung to my watch; snagged my belt buckle – capturing me. The more I tried to untangle them the more the soft, relentless swathes fastened over and around me. I was like a moth caught in a spider’s web – becoming more ensnared the more I struggled to be free.

I even tried to tear the netting but it was very strong. If my son hadn’t come out into the garden and released me, I might have been lying there, helpless, parcelled, waiting for a fate I hardly dare to imagine.”

Black Velvet, Dark Night

Detail of "Black Velvet, Dark Night"

Black Velvet, Dark Night is an installation of bird net hooked with cable ties.  When the work is completed it will be roughly within 2.5 x 2 metres.

What is Black Velvet, Dark Night?

Caught in, eternity that stretches to black. A fire that consumes and spits out.  Desolation and loneliness. The haze of a never ending dry spell.   Abandonment, burning off out of control, entrapment.

Words really can’t describe the feeling of it.

Like all of my cable tie installations Black Velvet, Dark Night is quite difficult to photograph.  I hope the images of the work in progress tell you enough about the scale of the work as well as show you my approach to embroidery and netting.  You can find more images and information about the work on my website at http://www.peterlsmith.com.au/html/netwurks.html .

Lobster traps, Port Fairy, Vic, 2009