As we walk towards the ‘cell /body /forest’ of the work, as we come to engage more closely with the individual elements, between and among the parts… the connections shift from purely visual to somatic… But this is not in isolation, our eyes and body pass messages to our brain as they experience the whole of the surrounding environment tumbled with the memories held in our cells, influencing how we react to the work and the world.
The work’s title speaks of the dual activities that takes place between organisms — each looking in, caring for its own body/its own internal system, constantly signaling between its parts to maintain homeostasis; while at the same time looking out to signal to and connect with other organisms to reciprocally enhance all of life.
inspiration
I have been asked often where the inspiration for this work came from. Specifically it came from a momentary glimpse while driving, of an old telegraph pole, no longer connected to anything, near Gundagai in rural New South Wales. The angle of its top cross bar looking like it was attempting to signal despite the missing wires. As my work is often about the interconnectedness of life this set me on a path of thinking about what a life form or a brain was… separate yet connected. The structure of the towers is a reference to the pattern of branches and trunks you see as you look through a scrubby forest: verticals and horizontals interacting to create trapezoid shapes, lines connecting to something outside of the shapes themselves.
The colours of the towers are ‘flower colours’, flowers and their colours being one of nature’s signals most recognized by us.
history of the work
looking in | looking out was first installed floating on a lake as part of the 2016 UWS Sculpture Award and Exhibition at the University Western Sydney’s Campbelltown Campus. View details and images HERE.
The lake was a human made dam, isolated from a current, but during the exhibition torrential rain drenched the area for days and water flowed from where it never had before finding its way into the lake causing a current to run through… the sculpture was not built to withstand a current. The water level rose lifting with it the tower pontoons, which loosened the anchors from the lake’s bottom; all the while the current continued to run entangling itself with the underwater keels on the towers, without a solid anchor to the lake’s bottom two towers fell. Once the deluge was over I sank the other three towers with the intention to remove the work at a later date. About 6 months later I heard from the curator that the water level had now dropped and they were expecting VIP visitors in 2 weeks — could I come and remove the work asap. It was mid winter and freezing, but with wet suits donned Deborah Redwood, my trusty install assistant, and myself we waded in and untangled the cables and pulled out the towers. While they suffered no distortion the paint was damaged… I took them home to my property where they were stacked…. until the Winmark invitation was extended.
The towers sandblasted to remove the old paint and then carefully repainted by John and Luke from Advanced Blasting in Wollongong.
installing at Winmark
With the towers strapped onto my roof racks using a hundred socks (socks are soft and stretchy and we all have many that no longer provide satisfactory foot covering) we set off. The install took place over 3 very hot days with a good does of rain thrown in.
On day 1 we took a couple of hours to site the work for best effect (I had made a ‘map’ out of electrical conduit to help mark the relative locations of each tower, each location was important for the cable connections to work); using the map we marked in the positions for each of the 10 holes. The Winmark crew used their on-tractor auger to dig the 10 holes — even the auger struggled at times in the hard rocky soil! We were very glad no hand digging was required! My husband Joseph and I raised two towers and concreting them in — being aluminum they are light and easy to lift despite their size. We left the towers overnight to allow the concrete to set before removing the supports.
On day 2 we raised the final three towers, again leaving them overnight before taking down the supports.
On day 3 we installed the 21 cables that drape between the towers — these were cut to length and made-up on site. we used long poles to hook the cables into each connection point. The connection points were all preplanned back in 2016 — we used the very same drawings I had used in 2016 to locate the towers and place the cables — I was grateful for 8 years younger self’s diligence in documenting all of this!
my experience of looking in | looking out here in this place: each time I visited the completed work I was brought into a state of calm; following the connections of the draped cables, curved by the force of gravity, from one connection point to another felt full. The memory that life is made alive by a uncomprehendable complexity of signals, receptors and cascading interrelationships of reciprocity runs through me… and that as we damage our living world (the living world we are enmeshed within) we reduce life’s capacity to maintain these interconnections… yet life, given space will rebuild Life; not the same as before (it never is the same) but Life none the less.
Like many works in the Winmark Sculpture park looking in | looking out is on display until such time as it is sold
I would like to express my gratitude to:
- Karin at Winmark for inviting this work to be part of the Winmark sculpture park
- my husband for his thoughtful assistance during preparation and install
- the crew at Winmark for their assistance during install, and ongoing maintenance
- Advanced Blasting for their careful repainting of the towers
