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On my last day in London last week, Spring finally arrived. I went to see the tree where we’d scattered my father’s ashes last Winter. It’s leaves were budding, and all around, bluebells were growing. Walking around the tree, I felt my father’s body as part of the landscape. I knew his transformation was a simple fact of life, but was surprised by the physicality of that knowledge, which felt like it came through the walking. No line separated my mind and body, or my thoughts and actions.
Home in Australia it’s Autumn, and I am starting a new phase of my journey. It feels good to be back in a warmer place, beneath a clear blue sky.
I have begun transcribing the interviews I had over the past two months with Antarctic scientists and artists in Buenos Aires, London and Cambridge. From these, and other data collected from other places over the past year, I am selecting and preparing texts to present to a study group of artists and dancers in Sydney.
Texts being selected are those revealing changes observed in the Antarctic landscape, and within those who have worked there.
Together, we will move and draw to the words, voices and images of scientists, artists and other expeditioners who have worked in Antarctica.
Through moving and drawing, we will investigate what connections can be found between Antarctic texts and some of our own journeys.
Through animation, I will investigate how accurately cycles of personal and environmental transformations can be communicated.
My ultimate aim is to compose an animated dance, working with material arising from these workshops, and other material previously gathered over the past year through dialogues with others. The animated dance will be published on-line, inviting further responses from viewers.
I am arranging an orientation day for study group participants in a studio in Paddington, where we’ll be working over several weekends for the next few months.
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