weeding

Weeding draws upon my research into biology and environmental history to explore the topic of weeds in an Australian context. Of specific relevance in this case was Alfred Crosbie's Ecological imperialism, specifically the notion of the portmanteau biota that accompanied European settlers in their colonisation of Australia. Additionally the work draws upon the ideas of UNSW biologist Angela Moles' research on invasion ecologies and the field more broadly as it addressed in the environmental humanities. In particular I would cite the work of Libby Robins and John Dwyer for their historical work on weeds in an Australian context. The work was created for the Guirguis art prize held at Ballarat Art Gallery, one of our state's oldest and most prestigious regional galleries. The exhibition drew audiences from Melbourne and locally and was seen by many thousands of viewers. As evidence of peer review, my selection was based initially on a survey of curators, which created a long list of invitees. After each invited artist proposed a work the curators at Ballarat Art Gallery and from Southern Cross University determined a short list of 15 artists from around the country. I created a three-screen video installation with a stereo soundtrack by Lizzie Pogson. I worked in the field to inventory the weeds present in Canadian Creek at the point where gold was discovered - gold being the reason that Ballarat grew to become a regional centre. I also created very detailed studies of Gorse in my studio and finally I cleared all 18 cubic metres of the gorse from my site. My work synthesises ideas about the still life, botanical and landscape traditions in art with emergent research in environmental history and biology and human geography. There are an increasing number of artists working in this field but to cite one very prominent example Pierre Huyghe's recent installation and video work, Umwelt, deals with ecologies specifically.