I took a break from sitting in front of the computer working on The Bowden Archives and Industrial Modernity book by wandering around the local bushland on a poodlewalk with Kayla. Sitting in front of the computer was getting to me.
From a early morning poodlewalk in local bushland in Waitpinga with Kayla during the middle of winter 2021.
It has been 3-4months since I've walked through the local bushland. I went back yesterday morning to avoid the gale force south westerly winds. I noticed that the native orchids were in flower. During this time I have been reading Photography and Place: Australian landscape Photography 1970 untill now , which is a pdf of an exhibition curated by Judy Annear, Art Gallery NSW in 2011.
Kayla and I made a brief return the local patch of bush in Waitpinga last week. We had not walked around there since late spring. We had stayed away over the summer months because of the brown snakes. In early autumn I decided that it would be safe early in the morning around sunrise as the early morning temperatures was cool.
So Kayla and I had a quick poodlewalk one morning when it wasn't heavily overcast to check things out. It is quite dark in this patch of bush early in the morning, and the heavily overcast skies make it difficult to take photos handheld. It was safe. We haven't been back since because of the heavy cloud cover in the morning.
I have just come across this current exhibition of trees at the Monash University Museum of Art entitled Tree Story. I do not know much about the exhibition, or the narrative that is implied in the word 'story'. The information on the MUMA website is very minimal. It says that the exhibition's:
"creative practices "create a ‘forest’ of ideas relating to critical environmental and sustainability issues. At its foundation—or roots—are Indigenous ways of knowing and a recognition of trees as our ancestors and family...Tree Story takes inspiration from the underground networks, information sharing and mutual support understood to exist within tree communities, and poses the question: what can we learn from trees and the importance of Country?"
There are no links to the Tree Story podcast, or to The Tree School publication on the website. So we don't have access to the fleshing out of the above ideas by the curators. This minimal online approach to an exhibition is standard art gallery practice .The art galleries continue to assume that exhibitions are about people physically visiting the gallery, even after a year of living with the Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions on people movement.
Does the use of 'school' suggest that trees have the capacity to learn? Or does tree school refer to a place where people can gather for communal learning and the production of knowledge grounded in lived experience and connection to communities? I have no idea.
From a recent poodlewalk in January 2021:
The macro photo below was made on a recent, early morning poodlewalk with Kayla along Depledge Road in Waitpinga on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. It was sometime during the 2020 Xmas/New Year period.
I have generally been walking along the back country road in the morning or afternoon to avoid the strong, gusty coastal winds; or for some shade from the late afternoon summer sun. The rhizomes photography has been rather limited this summer.
This branch of a pink gum ( Eucalyptus fasciculosa) is in the local bushland in Waitpinga adjacent to Depledge Rd on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia.
The picture was made in the early morning in mid-Spring (ie., October) about 15 minutes after sunrise. I often walk down Depledge Rd on a poodlewalk to avoid the strong, south-westerly winds off the southern ocean. The bush on the west side of the road provides us with protection from the wind.
It has been a cold, wet, windy, spring so far. We have had so much rain along the southern coast fo the Fleurieu Peninsula. However, there were a few days of fine weather between the days of steady rain in early October, and so we were able to wander around the local bushland in Waitpinga.
This picture was made in the early morning inbetween the rains sweeping across the coast:
It is a grounded branch of a pink gum in local bushland in Waitpinga. The tree is growing along the ground.
This picture of roadside vegetation was made on a recent early morning poodlewalk with Kayla along Depledge Rd in Waitpinga during the recent stormy conditions. Recent as in late September.
We chose to walk along this road as the adjacent bushland provided us with some shelter from the strong, gale force south westerly winds battering the coast. There was no traffic along the road, and so we had it to ourselves; apart from the usual rabbits, kangaroos and foxes criss crossing Depledge road.
The morning of 2nd August was foggy and, after the poodlewalk along Depledge Road in Waitpinga with Kayla we ended up slowly walking around the local bushland :
Foggy mornings like this are rare in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. We have only had two such mornings this winter.
In the last week or so I have been spending the early morning poodlewalks with Kayla exploring a small patch of bushland as a contrast to the coastal rocks. The bush runs alongside Depledge Rd in Waitpinga, and I am assuming this patch has been put aside as a result of the Landcare moment in the late 20th century.
On these bush walks I am using a handheld digital camera to build up some supplementary material for the forthcoming online walking /photography exhibition at Encounters Gallery. This will open in August as a part of the SALA Festival. I am also using these walks to find some suitable subject matter for a 5x4 photo session. This is one session that has been done. In the first instance the 5x4 photos are for an upcoming online exhibition for the Friends of Photography Group in August.
When walking in the bush reserve I follow the trails that have laid down by the kangaroos who crewe regular visitors to the bushland. If I didn't walk their trails iIwould be walking around in circles with no sense of where I was.