Nothingness 2009

Digital drawing
Size variable

Artist's collection, Sydney

When I left high School
I lived in my grandmother's house.
She lived close to the university
where I was studying arts.
Her house was a quiet place to work.

Another student lived with us,
David Carter, who was writing a thesis
after wintering in Antarctica.
He had lived for months on a glacier
collecting data on their motions.

Last year we met up again
and he talked about Antarctica.
He spoke of the silence he found there
and how he valued that still.
He reminded me of how we first met,
nearly 40 years ago,
in the icy silence
of my grandmother's house.

David's words reminded me
of the silence I found briefly
in Antarctica.
It was out of this world.

David described the 'nothingness
that is Antarctica'.

His back straightened.
He looked up.
His arms stretched sideways.
His body drew a cross.