Tell us about the evolution of your concept through this creative development process
My concept is simple. The project is titled ‘Palimpspectre’ and it will be part of a larger long term work called ghost writing, a book-length collection of poems. The work is about imagining a post-carbon economy and its effects, in the specific place where I permanently live, and see myself belonging, Worimi country, Myall Lakes. It’s about imagining this place after I’m gone.
Influenced by the COVID era, by lockdowns, by climate change (and the wish to reduce the carbon footprint), my aim, through this work is to promote the love of where we are (and of what grows here, of what there is to do to make things better in the place where we happen to be). I want to promote presence to the here-and-now as an aesthetic commitment of a kind that is available to everyone. I want to promote the idea of an inclusive community of place, not only for the benefit of local humans, but where those local humans will consider the wellbeing of all creatures, of all life.
I arrived at this project concept through a series of experiences that involved being out of my ‘comfort zone’ (i.e. away from home). These included a residency at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) in Armidale and travels across the state to Wellington Caves to meet with other Regional Futures participants.
My recent exhibition ‘Bung Mazes’ (2022), Sydney, has helped me think through ‘Palimspectre’, as an exhibition/installation/performance. Large scale past shows at the Macao Museum of Art (China) and the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes (Lisbon, Portugal) are important precedents for ‘Palimspectre’.