Visit the Forest Sculpture/Understory Walk
and Northcliffe website, click here.
Click
to view a SBS short video of the sculpture walk and this work
‘Art that grows’
The Southern Forest Sculpture Walk/Understory
is located next to the Information Centre, in Northchiffe, Western
Australia, about 360km south of Perth, the state capital.
The Art is Alive project commissioned
‘living’ sculptures (art that grows) for the Sculpture
Walk.
This particular sculpture was installed just
before the second Sculpture Walk/Understory anniversary celebrations
on Sunday 22 of November 2008.
Funding for the WA artists has been received
from the Regional Arts Fund (administered by Country Arts WA).
|
Concept plan for sculpture.
|
|
Concept - Graham Hay
Five tall, thin compressed paper
digits emerging out of the ground suggestive of supportive,
nurture, hold delicately within the palm, echoing the tree stumps
in the area, natural yet processed, durable yet fallible.
Making paper back into an artificial wood will obviously
conserve wood by recycling a waste material, and return the paper
(wood fibre) back into the natural enviroment.
Hopefully this will inspire others to recycle paper into art
and other functional items.
More subtlety the work may encourage us to reconsider the
growing excessive use of “paperwork” in our jobs and homes.
Hopefully we will try other more informal ways to communicate,
organise ourselves and others, and shape behaviour.
Other thoughts came to mind of the whole process of using
"culture" to very slowly alter information, and large
organisations...
|
|
Dr Neale Bougher inspecting the first attempt to grow the fungi
on the 2008 City of Melville Sculptural Walk work. Photo: Graham
Hay
|
|
All about the Fungi
Fungi are the often overlooked but necessary "out of
sight" underground support systems for Australia’s native
flora and fauna.
This sculpture should attract attention because it is made from
paper. Then slowly the fungi aspect of the work will emerge,
raising public awareness of the key roles of fungi.
Based upon my requirements for this project, Dr Neale Bougher,
Mycologist/Senior Research Scientist, with the Department of
Environment and Conservation, recommended and provided Scarlet
Bracket Fungus spores, which is a non-toxic, native to WA, wood
eating fungus (see page N-8 of on-line book at
www.fungiperth.org.au).
During construction it was placed inside a water-logged
compressed paper sculpture for the 2008 City of Melville
Sculptural Walk. Unfortunately the paper in the sculpture was so
tightly compressed that despite being unsealed, sitting in water
and being waterlogged for several months, water and oxygen did not
penetrate the sculpture to the spores.
Based upon this test piece, Dr Bougher recommended I contact
Donna Franklin, Fungi and bacteria Artist and Tutor at Edith Cowan
University. He also confirmed that Scarlet Bracket Fungus is
native to all parts of south-west including the Northcliffe area
and suggested ways to encourage good growth and fruiting.
|
|
Donna Franklin with Cultures in Lab 2008, photo: Donna
Franklin.
|
|
Collaborative Contribution – Donna Franklin
The living component (scarlet bracket fungus) has been supplied
and grown by Donna Franklin.
This is based on her previous research with the species in art /
science artworks such as the living fungi dress ‘Fibre
Reactive’, created during her Masters of Art studies at The
School of Contemporary Arts, Edith Cowan University and artist
residency at SymbioticA: The Centre for Excellence in Biological
Arts, The University of Western Australia. This artistic
contribution has been made especially for Graham Hay’s artwork
for this particular project in the Northcliffe, South West
Sculpture Walk 2008. Special Thanks to the Faculty of Natural and
Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia.
|
|
Jason working on concrete foundations. Photo: Sid Asepkus
|
|
Construction
Final site selection for the sculpture was made with Fiona
Sinclar, commission Project Coordinator for Southern Forest Arts
(Inc.), on Monday 3 November. Roy Moss has provided some great
advise on structural aspects of the sculptures, and welded the
joining nuts to the top rods. Thanks also to Sid Asepkus has
quickly organised site works and the pouring of the concrete
foundations, which was undertaken by Jason Tatlor and Doug over
the weekend 8-9 November. Construction of the paper sculptures
took place on site Sunday 16 November to Tuesday 18 November 2008.
For a few weeks after installation Anne Sepkus sprayed a water and
nutrient mix onto the paper to keep it wet and wrapped it in
plastic.
|
|
Threading the paper onto the steel rods. Photo: Graham Hay
|
Inserting the fungi between the pages. Photo: Graham Hay
|
|
Threading the second section of paper. Photo: Graham Hay
|
Carving and smoothing the paper. Photo: Graham Hay
|
|
Adding the fungi culture to the outside of the paper.. Photo:
Graham Hay
|
The final finished work, awaiting final site works. Photo:
Graham Hay
|
On the evening of Monday 17 November 2008,
Graham Hay and international Artist Cornelia Konrads (Germany) gave a
talk about their new sculptures in the Southern Forest Sculpture
Walk. Click here
for details.
In early 2009 the Southern Forest Sculpture
Walk underwent a 're-brand' and will now be known as Understory.
Latest photos of fungi!!! (Thanks to Anne
Sepkus for taking and emailing these in October 2009
|
Photo: Anne Sepkus
|
Photo: Anne Sepkus
|
|
Photo: Anne Sepkus
|
Photo: Anne Sepkus
|
"As you will see we are getting some
moulds on the sculpture, they are looking quite colorful though it is
mostly a black mould,"said Anne in her email. "I'm hoping
that the patches of orange are related to the fungi spore. They are
growing mostly near the inner bend, I haven't seen anything at ground
level. The work has settled in well and is looking more "organic"
than it did at first"(email: Saturday, 24 October, 2009 10:12:47
PM GMT +08:00 Perth).
Dr Neale Bougher, Mycologist/Senior Research
Scientist, with the Department of Environment and Conservation states
that "The photos show that the orange fungus has grown. If there
are sufficient reserves of nutrients within the sculpture to last
until the next wet season, the orange fungus may begin to produce
fruiting structures. It will depend on the amount of particularly
woody material left inside. The black growths are most likely only
mould fungi growing primarily on the paper and they will not produce
large structures"(email: Tuesday, 27 October, 2009 8:08:42 AM
GMT +08:00 Perth).
Why not bookmark this page, and come back to
find out how the fungi grows over time?
Or, visit the Northclife Forest Sculpture/
Understory Walk, and see the work. click here
for directions and more information.
Click
to view a SBS short video of the sculpture walk and this work
Home
