Movement In The Mangroves

Metcalfe Gallery, Brisbane Institute Of Art, Windsor, Brisbane.

18 - 30 October, 2013

Artist Statement - Part 1

Life’s messy isn’t it?

Whether it’s our bodies, our families, our garages, our nation, our world.

One of the messiest places must be the mangroves.  They’re neither land nor sea - they’re tidal.

Not clean sand, sticky mud.

Weird roots, smelly detritus of the sea. 

But just because of that life on the edge they are the most fascinating places and surprisingly peaceful.

The tide comes in and out like a respiration, crabs crawl out of holes and back again, snails slide over and through the sandy mud often covered with a mantle of mud, birds wheel overhead. 

Tiny fish grow to be bigger fish, tiny crustaceans grow to be big crustaceans, dead organisms wash up only to be covered by silt, eaten by crabs and worms, digested by microorganisms and fungi.  Immediately death to life

And it’s messy!

Waves wash up and around trunks and roots, each different to the last creating swirls and eddies of smooth  curves like a  graceful dance.

There is a rhythm of in and out, of waxing and waning, of movement and calm, of wet and dry, of activity and peace, of calm and storm and of day and night. And every piece of this mesh has it’s own place and time, all part of and bound to the ebb and flow. It’s all a part of the glory of any particular moment, each moment connected and dependent on the last.

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