Unnamed

Sydney
[2008-07-16]

animation: Lisa Roberts
Sydney 2008

I saw through a trawling camera's eye,
scanning around Heard Island,
unknown forms beneath the sea
yet to be named by scientists.

I saw through a trawling camera's eye unknown forms beneath the sea.

I drew quickly as they passed.

Scientists could name only some.

In 2004 I worked for a short time in Tasmania

at the Australian Antarctic Division.
The icebreaker Aurora Australis had just returned
from a voyage around Heard Island.
The ship had a camera attached to its hull
to film the ocean floor.
This was an experiment,
something not done before.

With pencil in hand I watched the film
and drew for several hours.
I saw some creatures
unknown to the scientists,
wild life yet to be named.

I drew this spiral with pencil on paper, moving through the Salisbury Plains in a car. I drew it as a kind of seismograph as evidence of having been touched by that landscape. In the animation, the spiral connects another landscape with other life forms. I am drawing on a symbol that has been used for centuries to represent the life force of the natural world.