New perspectives on age-old problems are being developed through a partnership between students, regional communities, and resource managers.
Mungo National Park in the far south west of New South Wales is a place of records. The arid landscape bears the oldest traces of human habitation in Australia yet discovered, with some bones dating back 40,000 years. The skeletal remains of long-extinct animals have also been uncovered there, including those of the mainland thylacine and the giant kangaroo. The land itself shows bones too, evident around the dry lake that sits at the centre of the park. These remnants point to a verdant forest that would have existed when Indigenous people first arrived. But recently, Mungo has been the inspiration for another kind of record altogether.
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Art student Antonia Aitken and Field Studies Covenor John Reid take art out and about.
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Last year more than 30 staff and students from the School of Art and School of Music ventured to Mungo and the nearby town of Wentworth as part of the Environment Studio’s Field Study program. This allows artists to combine repeat visits to the field with studio time over the course of the academic year. The program is conducted in partnership with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC), creating increased access to local expertise and opportunities to participate in community debates within the Murray-Darling Basin.
“By comparison with Wentworth and its energetic community, Mungo is splendid isolation,” explains John Reid, convenor of the Field Studies program. “As you become aware of its archaeological heritage you appreciate how the landscape has encapsulated time. There is a contemporary life there, but the past is also tangible.”
Reid says the Field Studies program had its origins with photography students and their propensity to wander in search of subject matter. But participants now include artists who work in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, drawing, glass, ceramics, sculpture, multimedia, textiles, jewellery, music and photography. The resulting exhibition of art and music is presented at the field site, allowing local communities to see their way of life reflected visually and acoustically in a myriad of ways.
“We register on the cultural record where people live and work, and the issues that concern them”, Reid says. “In doing that we exercise our aesthetic abilities. It’s a pitch both to the intellect and the emotions.
“That is appreciated by communities. On account of familiarity, people sometimes overlook what emotionally sustains them in the region where they live. For many, our exhibitions are a reaffirmation of the significant value judgments they have made.”
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Blueprint 2005 by the Contextual Villains was shown at Wentworth.
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Relationships are forged between students and particular stakeholders, depending on the interests of the individual artist and the generosity of those who share their local expertise. Reid says there is no set brief on subject matter, but environmental concerns are a common theme given the prominence of sustainability debates in Australia.
“We often focus on environmental issues. Where possible artists are briefed by ANU experts before a program begins in the field, and then on location by field scientists, indigenous leaders, landholders, shire officials and local artists. Artworks that arise out of this process seek to inform and motivate. Through the power of aesthetic statements we try to narrow the gap between communities knowing what to do and actually doing it.
“We make a contribution to community discussion. As artists we can wade in as advocates of various social values, where a scientist has to be more cautious so as not to compromise their objectivity.
“But despite this, we’ve always been wary that the last thing any community wants is someone telling them what to do. We’ve always made our contribution as part of a debate.”
Art student Antonia Aitken says the chance to walk around Mungo National Park with Indigenous rangers provided great insight into the history of human contact with the land, and how it has changed with time.
“Stepping onto the ancient dry bed at Lake Mungo, you’re overwhelmed by space and silence,” she says. “Being there encourages a recognition and acknowledgement of one’s identity, cultural and social awareness and connection with the land.
“We were shown ancient fireplaces, middens, and hairy-nose wombat bones, and told about the three clan groups and their totems: the emu and the Western Grey Kangaroo, which we had seen wandering the area.”
The repeat visits to the field location result in a deeper understanding that Reid says is the trademark of the Field Studies program.
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"On account of familiarity, people sometimes overlook what emotionally sustains them in the region where they live. For many, our exhibitions are a reaffirmation of the significant value judgments they have made.”
John Reid
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“It provides students with an opportunity to formulate ideas from quality raw sensory data,” he says. “Usually, younger students do not have the resources to travel long distances. Consequently, highly processed cultural sources found online, or in journals, books and exhibitions are often the starting point for the creative process. There is nothing wrong with that and familiarity with such material is essential. But is important that artists seek inspiration from primary life experiences beyond institutions, and that we teach them how to formulate ideas.”
The trips to Mungo and Wentworth culminated in an exhibition, titled Wet River Dry Lake, staged in Wentworth last October aboard the historic paddle steamer P.S. Ruby and four other venues along the main street. The component of the show on the Ruby also toured to Mildura as part of the MDBC International River Health Conference, where viewer numbers were swelled by hundreds of school children.
“It was quite a switch to go from Mungo to Wentworth, which is a bustling regional town at the junction of the Murray and the Darling, full of lobby groups and community activity. Fantastic characters live there. Everyone has an agenda. In terms of pace and sensibility, two locations were poles apart”, Reid says.
In addition to contributing culturally to MDBC community strategies, the art produced during the Field Studies programs is frequently included in the Commission’s publications as a visual form of communication. MDBC communications manager Lawrie Kirk says the partnership is a rewarding exchange, which benefits the communities involved.
“The visual art and music compositions produced in response to these consultative field experiences invariably interpret a wide range of environmental issues facing those areas and provide another way of understanding the unique regional features of the Basin.”
Reid says the support of the MDBC also means students have a wider range of opportunities in the field than would normally be possible.
“It means we can offer a much more enriched program. We can hire extra vehicles, get the students up in aircraft, and produce exhibition catalogues. The commission also provides in-kind support with the planning of particular programs and makes available its extensive contact network.”
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