Cataract Gorge (2010)

Art work created as Kings Bridge Cottage Artist in Residence, Cataract Gorge Reserve, Launceston, 13 Sept to 3 Oct 2010.
The residency was commenced with the intention of making: “an investigation of place – (the Gorge’s) historical, topographic specificity underlying the cultural, social and imaginative life there – and (to explore) ways of creating artwork accessible to people who are blind or have low vision as well as to those who are sighted in response to the site”.
After two or three days of administrative work, the drawing could begin, firstly with tonal and more cautious charcoal studies of views from the cottage, and then moving out along the Cataract Walk and Zigzag trail to work on more calligraphic and responsive observational works of the steep but varied hillsides.
Working with a specific dry media for each drawing and mindful of the significance of each mark and the many varied and inter-linked forms that made up the earth and vegetation and human incursions on and in the land. Mindful also of the histories, written or just hinted at in reading about the Gorge prior to and during the residency, the ongoing presence of the indigenous people of the area and the many more recent arrivals. And mindful again of the desire to create meaningful art for people who are sighted or blind in order to share the experience of this place with a broader range of people than visual art ordinarily does.
(Extracts from Report to Launceston City Council)