SITEWORKS 2012 generated interest and knowledge about food production and its history; the choices we make about eating; the impact of those choices on land, soil, water and other resources and our engagement with public discussions about land use, food security and climate change.
Milk and Honey is a confluence of the old world, the Colonial and the “natural’’ .As if stranded by some ancient flood two sonic river punts float in the Bundanon homestead, carrying cargoes of milk and honey. Sonic components influenced by Old Testament references in the Boyd paintings are entwined with his musical preferences. These are overlaid by the farm culture and physical environment of Bundanon – anchored to an Indigenous prehistory.
Last Word, by Robyn Backen and collaborators, is based upon the 1880 daily diaries of Thomas Biddulph of Eearie Park (a Bundanon Trust property) that started each day with a simple weather report. Last Word transposes his observations into a river fugue – a collage of voices transmitted then received – beside, around and across the Shoalhaven tidal zone. The work was developed over a series of residencies at Bundanon beginning in 2010.
PLANK is a group of collaborators who work with Robyn on a range of projects, and includes Michelle Xen a Queensland based artist who collaborates across music, visual art, performance, film and fashion. She is the vocalist with electro pop group, Edge of Colour.
Diego, Allegra and Elena Bonnetto participated as a family unit. The Bonetto’s draw experience from Diego’s many years of involvement with interdisciplinary artists’ collectives, Allegra’s theatrical acclaims and Elena’s zine stardom.
A documentary with artist Natalie Jeremijenko and chef Mihir Desai seeking to invent new dishes that re-imagine our relationship with other species. The video documentary was presented in Travelling Colony - the Brooke Andrew's, Aboriginal and Pop art inspired, caravans on the lawns at bundanon. Jodie Newcombe also participated in the Conversation.
Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist and engineer whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. She is an active member of the net.art movement, and her work primarily explores the interface between society, the environment and technology. She has alternatively described her work as 'X Design' (short for experimental design) and herself as a 'thingker'.
Food for Thought is an interactive exchange inspiring participants to reflect on the future of food - real food is exchanged for your thoughts.
2035 ecosystem collapse, runaway population growth and climate change have eliminated conventional production and supply of food. Farms are gone. No-one eats plants or animals any more. Food is manufactured from algae, industrial waste and chemicals. Nothing is real.Except for The Real Food People who travel to communities offering a taste of delicious soup – made from real plants and animals. What’s it cost? An idea, a thought on what we will be harvesting in 2035.
Jodie McNeilly's work focuses on the intersections between phenomenology and performance aesthetics. She is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance critic.
Through the River is a screen-based installation ­– a portrait of this unique riverscape and the people who have made it their place. It explores the river as an entity that not only sustains life but has the potential to take it away; the reciprocity between the primordial force of the river and how its inhabitant’s have attempted to tame its alien powers; as a place that manifests idiosyncratic spiritualities; and the river as a great leveller and divider.
Alex Kershaw works as a photographic and video artist examining the symbolism and ritual associated with people and their territories. His work is often site-specific in nature and relates explicitly to the Australian consciousness while addressing universal ideas of identity, memory and relation. In 2011, Alex was a recipient of a Tokyo Wondersite residency and an Australia Council for the Arts and Anne & Gordon Samstag ISCP Residency. He is currently undertaking a PhD and teaching at UCLA.
The animation Moving Graffiti, created at Bundanon during a residency in 2012, shows a map of the Shoalhaven River morphing into an Australian Bass fish leaping out of the river. The Bass are in decline due to weirs and dams blocking migration on most of our rivers. Tallowa Dam on the Shoalhaven excluded the Bass from more than 80% of their habitat before the fish lift was built. Australian Bass are a good fish to eat, but should only be taken from stocked areas. This moving graffiti has been projected onto several locations around Bundanon. Moving Graffiti was installed the Bundanon Homestead Library from 29 September throught to 29 October 2012. The Verdant Shed A projection piece where the long dead trees that are the posts supporting the old shearing shed come to life. The Verdant Shed was projected onto the Study Centre at Bundanon on the night of the 29th of September 2012 as part of SITWORKS: Future Food Feast.
Leon Cmielewski and Josephine Starrs are Australian artists whose long term collaboration has produced media art installations situated at the juncture of cinema, information visualisation and sublime landscape.They are currently working on a Creative Australia funded project, Augmented Terrain, an immersive audiovisual installation that re-imagines the relationship between nature and culture. Highly detailed aerial views of Australian landscapes and waterways are dynamically manipulated in ways that reveal their underlying fragility.
RT106 - THE BEAST OF BUNDANON: Mike Leggett with Henry Goodall.
The video RT106 The Beast of Bundanon was commissioned by the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (now Local Land Services) for presentation at SITEWORKS 2012. (RT106 refers to the ear tag on one of the steers in the herd of Angus Semmentals raised at Bundanon.) A mature animal was selected from Bundanon's herd as the Trust's food contribution to the event. Following the dictum, 'from paddock to plate', the animal is observed as it leaves the farm, is taken to the slaughterhouse, killed and butchered. Hebry Goodall, the Trust's Property Manager, assumes the historical and contemporary role of farmer and relates a short history of farming in the Shoalhaven and methods of husbandry. The video follows the progress of the beast through to its preparation by celebrity chef, Jared Ingersoll, for eating by the public at SITEWORKS 2012.
Mike Leggett has been working with moving image across the institutions of art, education and television since the early-70s. He has film and video work in archives and collections in Europe, Australia, North and South America and has curated exhibitions of interactive media, including for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. He writes and lectures about computer mediated art, including contributions to journals (Leonardo; Continuum) and magazines (RealTime, World Art). He has a PhD from the Creativity & Cognition Studios in the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney and an MFA from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.
Played original music under the trees on the Bundanon Homestead lawns throughout the afternoon.
Paul Green is a South Coast based musician, songwriter and producer. His recently released ‘Behind The Stars’ with his band, The Other Colours is his 7th studio album and his first as an ABC Music artist.