Impressions from the Reserve

 This exhibition was the culmination of a project I undertook over the three and half years throughout the Reserve, more recently known as Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair and Walls of Jerusalem National Park. All of the impressions have been collected in situ, leaving the land mostly undisturbed. The project has encompassed an Arts Tasmania Residency at Waldheim near Ronny Creek, leading teenagers into the mountains, a summer being an interpretive Track Ranger at Lake St Clair. I also went on numerous, mostly solo, multiday walks venturing into some remote places across the Reserve. 

 The Reserve is a vulnerable landscape due to both human recreational use and the far reaching and devastating impact that fire will have due to a changing climate. I capture the intimate details of land as it is now and create permanent records of impermanent places. I create talismans that connect people to the ephemeral elements of place and when placed on the landscape of the body they are in turn a tangible reminder of the place from where they came.

 During this project, there are places that I’ve been to that I will never go again and places that I’ve heard of that I will not visit due to their fragility. I have consciously chosen not to identify where I have travelled and the photos are not geographically identified as to not encourage over visitation to particular areas and to allow space for others to discover the wonders for themselves. We need to question and examine our behaviour in order to leave as little trace as possible of our passage so to not inadvertently damage the places we profess to love.