A short trip to the beach along from St Kidare, and then off to the airport. I am not looking forward to a 25 hour marathon-but and buoyed up by the friendships and help I have found in this extraordinary corner of the world. The piece is really only just forming and it will be interesting to see what finally emerges.
An early start again and Claire drives me to Melbourne with luggage. I meet Darren Tofts outside ACMI and we exchange mutual knowledge of friends and projects-he generously gives me a copy of his last book and I promise the same when published, Luckily Alessio the chief curator at ACMI passes and I am able to pitch the idea of putting the Mobile Audience on as a show in 2009. He is keen on the idea and shows me around the extensive facilities, which include a showcase of local school and college talent , professional broadcast studio and an extensive games area. We have lunch with Linda Williams and Simon Perry –who has made some impressive public installations and is definitely on the same wavelength. Linda is happy to include the new installation in the show she is curating for the RMIT gallery in autumn 2008. Claire then drives us to see a rapid-prototyping facility in Hawthorn with a sculpture exchange project in mind. It is impressive and has the latest tools from Israel which are even more accurate and economic than stereo-lithography. Everything seems to be do-able today!
I grab a cab to Jon’s and we have another farewell Malay takeaway.
This is my last day in Bendigo and I am busy packing and cleaning and then to college to return borrowed kit and finish edits. In the evening I give a talk on my work at the gallery, which gets a fair audience and we celebrate with a farewell Malaysian meal. Up late finishing off packing.
Anzac day-and an early start at 5.00 am to catch the dawn events. One of the first there setting up my tripod and checking angles. The grave-faced veterans marched past and I found little space in what had become a large crowd to get a good view of the ceremonies. It was all curiously moving-given the raw deal Anzacs have had fighting ssurrogate wars and loud applause met the vets.
Then a great breakfast at a friend of Donna’s who shows us an early miners house and the shack believed to be the first in Bendigo which belonged to a Chinese Miner turned market gardener. All that will grow here are pepper trees, which strew the yard in pink seeds. At midday I am off on a trek around the wineries arranged by Greg and Vince. We start with a standard winery which is as expected, but end up at a small family run one which makes the best wines in the region. This happy picnic turns tragic as the farmer is clearly in deep despair about the drought. He has no crop and the water which fed his farm has all failed-just a bark filled creek behind the house and every spring dry. This is the true tragedy of the changing weather. Clouds pass over without a drop of rain.
A rush to college to carry on edits, and then off with Carolyn to have a day finding water. We drive to Lake Epaloc and see a vast depression with a tiny pool at the bottom and the rest as dry as dust. We drive round past the yacht club perched absurdly on the edge of this dust bowl. Later we find the cascades from the high granite hills, which supply the main reservoirs of Bendigo. It is all set in an exquisite green valley, but the waters are not exactly a torrent. We end up exploring the edges of the Whipstick forest, which is all black ironbarks and a poisoned, and ravaged landscape raped by the diggers. It has a very dark and unfriendly feel-almost resentful. More roos observe us from a ridge.
A rush to finish videos and photos and then intensive editing. Paper to prepare for Thursday’s talk and applications for galleries plus a promised print for a charity event
Open day at the studio and a small trickle of people, but those who came were enthusiastic. One lady suggested I visit the Buddhist Stupa(temple) being built beyond Eaglehawk, so in the afternoon I pursuaded Claire to drive out that way. It is enormous and remote -huge earthworks and steel frameworks with a giant bronze buddha lying sunbathing with a protective cloth on its face. The visitor centre was run by a very gentle monk from New Zealand who showed us around but proved to be camera shy.
On the way back I caught my first shots of kangaroos-which are as common as rabbits and regarded here with similar indifference-Brits seem bizarre when they jump up and down, but I did. The dive to Castlemaine was based in roseate sunset and the gums looked breathtaking. A farewell meal at the Railway hotel which keeps a simulcraum of Ned Kelly's armour by the bar complete with bullet holes. I eat a T-bone rib steak straight out of the Flintstones-best ever.
Early start to meet with Dean Keep who is a media artist using mini-narratives on mobiles and doing a Masters at RMIT. He has arranged a lift out to see Lyndal Jone's Eco House project out at Anvoca. We pick up our lift in Brunswick and after a first torrential rainstorm arrive in time at Lyndal's for a seminar on sustainable practice. Very happy to meet up with Sue McCauley and Michael Buckley-who I hadn't seen for ten years and Debbie Ely who I last saw in Bristol 20 years ago at Watershed when curating a new media exhibition, before she moved out here permanently.
The house is beautiful and impressively restored. After lunch we go on a walkabout with Peter Andrews an ecologist who wrote "Back from the Brink"- and is busy pulling up weeds and explaining how with a lifetime's experience of working the land he has seen the landscape change. Having watched and experimented with the movement of water, he has observed the importance of biodiversity - weeds included. And has concluded that to save Australia we need to return the landscape to its original systems.
We dash back to Melbourne for a meal at the Panama club-one of Melbourne's hidden and exquisite nightspots and then on to Mike Stubb's leaving party, where I find just about everyone I know in OZ-Sean Cubitt with Melinda Rackam and Julianne Pearce who happen to be over from Adelaide. A mighty gathering of the digirati and a very nice barbi to boot. I stay at Mike and Sue's to get an early train back to Bendigo for an open studio session in the morning.
Off to Melbourne again-beginning to feel like a yo-yo. Completed the demonstration video and exhibition proposal on the train. Met up with Linda Williams who is co-curating a show on eco themes next year at RMIT gallery in 2008. Very interesting discussion over an excellent pasta on evolutionary theory in relation to ecology-plus the relative merits of OZ and UK. Linda is originaally from Rawtenstall so we both knew the area and she is thinking of relocating before the drought gets worse.
Had a couple of hours in Hardware Lane watching Geoff and his group playing Jazz to packed tables of intent eaters. Very good and warmed up to play my favorite Mile Davis by request!
Arived to find a very tired, but happy Jon after a week on his own with the three children.
A morning photographing Lansell's first house and neighbourhood and filming along the creek. The fountain at the centre of Bendigo is ever more grotesque and significant. Then an intense grapple with the video editing to make a coherent synergy. There is still so much to do and so little time left!
