Image: They talk of ʻdisphorreaʼ
As part Shifting Ground, a curated program of site-specific works held in Alice Springs in May 2007 we held a solo exhibition, They talk of ʻdisphorreaʼ at the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, investigating the layered histories of this site and its potential as a catalyst for dialogue and exchange.
Inspired by Olive Pinkʼs personal fascination with native Central Australian plants and her passionate involvement in critical public debates around land use and the effects of colonisation on Indigenous Australia, we conducted our own informal investigation into key plants found within the Garden today, each of which held some significance for Miss Pink herself.
These plants formed the basis of a series of conversations between the ourselves and members of the local community, and led to the production of a set of works on paper involving botanical illustration, solar etching, and hand-written excerpts of those conversations. The finished works evoke a range of different understandings of and relationships to place, and bring into public discourse the contestation underlying how our natural environment is managed, valued and storied.
The work was produced in three weeks, during which time we inhabited the Garden itself, transforming this important public place into a temporary studio for our collaborative artistic practice. The material traces of this process (kindly loaned to us by various members of the Alice Springs community) were incorporated into the exhibition in the form of a sculptural installation that reflects on the institutions and methodologies of science, anthropology and the visual arts.
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