Poles Apart

I have walked past this pole in Tamarama many times, yet had never examined its layered surface before today.

Instead of rushing past as I had always done, I began to document the markings which were the remains of years of sticky tape, adhesive backed paper and cracked paint. 

For me it had a Wabi Sabi beauty, the process of time and the deterioration that created a layering of texture akin to abstract paintings. Tracks where the tape had been removed and the dirt from the street had adhered, appeared as the deliberate strokes of an artist. Yet this was not a deliberate intention, it was random happening where both man and nature have intervened. 

Some of the more recent sections of tape were still attached. They flickered in the wind like a vibrational dance. Caressed by sun & wind they bore witness to the gentle process of deterioration.

Colours from the ink in the posters of the past were creating an interesting patina. As I was enjoying this,  I began to reflect on the concept of connection. It was obvious from my study of the pole that what I had long considered to be an inanimate object, was in fact animated by its the overlay of tape & paper that formed part of the evolution of its surface.

I thought of how it is possible to overlook or dismiss the layers present in others we connect with. Not necessarily deliberately but purely as a response to the bustle and pace of our everyday interactions - we so rarely get to connect to the many layers of human experience present. Like my continual passing of the pole, we fail to understand the cultural patina that affects behaviour created from upbringing, social conditioning and political and geographical differences.

The reflection of such, brought to my attention the fact that we can be poles apart in terms of our ability to find the points of connection. Yet such limits might be offset if we can slow down long enough to observe the beautiful overlays present in each person we meet. Such overlays can form the ties or common threads that bind us to our shared human experience. 

Working drawings

Earlier in the year, Laine and I spent time at the installation site in Willoughby talking about the work we wanted to collaborate on. This resulted (after a huge and fertile lot of drawings and sculpture ideas) in working drawings of branches floating through a grove of casuarinas. Tied, wrapped, cast in other materials and built into a new form. A conversation in form between us recognizing the way a piece can start, grow and develop.

The work is a site of exchange and integration, interaction and manipulation. As well as being a place of observation, as we find small pieces and mark them and add them to the whole. Each one curled, or broken, or quirky, individual in their imperfection.

Between the cracks

between the cracks

I seem to be looking down lately, perhaps it is a state of mind that is carefully considering the next steps I am to take. This crack in the roadside near Bondi Rd at Bondi caught my eye. It was the gentle green moss in the curb and the texture of the concrete which appeared to be crumbling. An arrangement of leaves and bark and grasses appeared to have gathered themselves as an adorning overlay for the cracks.

 From a distance and it appeared to have some of the Wabi Sabi order of beauty that is found in decay and deterioration. So I decided to take a closer look to enjoy the arrangement and the cracks.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this crack in town on Hay Street not far from Central station. The delicate moss was creating another layer of texture as an adornment.

I began to observe closely the different sections of the moss and concrete and felt a sense of delight in the beauty that appeared as nature found a way to make use of the opportunity that the decay afforded. 

Edges

Edges. Claustrophobic edges where my side is jammed against a train load of other bodies. Intimate edges where the skin of an arm meets the curve of a wrist.

I wonder about the edges in the landscape, for instance,  where the trunk of a eucalypt passes down and into the soil, creating a visual edge with the ground landscape but it keeps going through, beyond where we can see it.

Play

Today the wind is wild and a tree has fallen down outside the studio. I ran out to see if the precious branches Laine and I had collected together last time we visited the installation site at Willoughby were OK. They had been sheltering under the tree, how ironic. We are both collecting twine and and thread and talk about seeing the work floating through the casuarina grove, an extension of the trees that are there, delicate and connected with fine threads woven, bound, tied.

We played with some small branches and a beautiful satiny red thread last week. 

The branches are fine and maybe we can use some of the tree as well.

 

Introduction

Threaded Ties is a collaboration between artists Laine Hogarty and Tamsin Salehian.

Artists Statement:

In the bustle of our daily experience we are prone to overlook the relevance of our connections to the environment and to each other. Through observing the landscape two artists connect to make a joint response to site.  Making a series of integrated environmental interventions they thread together an intuitive understanding of place.The work will form by the action and playfulexchange between the artists, wrapping,binding and releasing objects to reconfigure them into unexpected arrangements

 Adopting Japanese principles of “Wabi Sabi”, they seek to unveil the resident beauty by making less obvious forms and connections. 

"[Wabi-sabi] nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."  

As a symbol of invisible ties that link us, the collaborative work acknowledges the abundance of manifold connections that congregate as part of our experience of life. Whenever we consider such connections we are also reminded of the inevitability of their impermanency,  the very essence of our connections follows the Wabi Sabi princple.

Through the creation of ephemeral works the artists hope to allows us to see afresh the perfection of our imperfect connections.

Through the creation of ephemeral works the artists hope to allows us to see afresh the perfection of our imperfect connections.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Our collaborative work will be a site specificpiece developed especially for the Willoughby site. It involves the work developing through a conversation and exchange of ideas and objects between the two artists, the 'connection' is the work, the points of exchange trading across the artists practice. Connection to place as a site of understanding and also as a physical site of history, connection to land and site of mark making.