Southern Forest Arts
Sculpture Walk
Northcliffe, Western Australia

updated NOVEMBER 2007

Documentation of the installation of Southern Forest Arts Sculpture Walk in Northcliffe Forest Park, south west Western Australia.

These black and white documentary images show the installation of most of the Southern Forest Arts Sculpture Walk artworks. I have concentrated mainly on the people involved, rather than trying to depict the sculpture, 'though aspects of these are shown. The artists are listed alphabetically. Some artists are not represented as they installed their work on days I was not available in Northcliffe

Warwick Backhouse
CALOPHYLLA & MARGINATA
Corymbia calophylla, Eucalyptus marginata (marri and jarrah timber) and granite
Seats, carved from marri and jarrah, mirroring the leaf shape of that particular species. Each seat is situated amongst its' species along the trail



François Davin
FEEDING
Metal rod and gold leaf
The work refers to a myth, in which some of the trees decided to lie down, evoking generosity, rebirth and rest beyond death

Guilding the Leaves 17 Oct 2006

Kevin Draper
ENTRY STATEMENT
Forged and welded steel, paint
Symbolic tree form integrated with a painted frame representing a 'window' into the environment


and
TRAIL HEAD ENTRY
Forged and welded steel, paint
The large painted frame and branches symbolise entry into the Southern Forest Arts Sculpture Walk. The various colours of the frame are references to plant forms, bird life and forest matter



Lorenna Grant
WHOLE, YOU WERE MEANT TO BE HERE
Galvanised steel, steel cable, forest detritus (karri sticks)




The sculpture consists of a galvanised steel ring woven with forest detritus mounted about 17 metres up a karri tree. Lorenna Grant link

Lorenna's sculpture was created in the forest, rather than being brought down from Perth as a pre-formed kit of parts to be bolted together in a few hours. The forest based work gave me the chance to photograph her with the work in progress.


Peter Hill
PATHWAYS
Jarrah and blackbutt timber, welded steel, knobs
These branches grow out into the space available, linking the Earth to the Sky. . .






Richie Kuhaupt
LAYERS AND THEN THERE'S LAYERS (FOREST FOLK)
Marble resin, cement, iron dust, steel
Figures represenjting the symbiotic association people have developed with the forest landscape, itself an entity built layer on layer over time



Alex and Nicola Mickle
BOUND
Cast bronze, jarrah, copper cable, rope, steel
"How much has to be explained and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling" Claude Debussy. Raw, us and nature - bound






Tony Pankiw
CASCADING SHELTER
Natural steel, galvanised steel
A shelter which echoes the form of Birds' wings, leaves and shapes found in the forest. Designed to provide shade and allow rainwater to cascade into a sculptural pond




Kati Thamo
FOREST STONES
Granite, bronze, timber
A series of small sculptures and benches placed along the trail, incorporating sandblasted imagery and bronze elements




Natalie Williamson
with Central School of Art, TAFE, Perth
SUNDEW
Metal pipe, steel rod, laser cut steel, glass beads, silicon, gloss enamel paint
Based on the native sundew Drosopha sp, the sculpture has four stems reaching 6.5metres from the base of a burnt stump

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge Northcliffe Arts Association for funding towards the production of exhibition prints

I thank Roger Garwood for the use of a Leica and for finding the 1950s vintage Canon rangefinder lenses, almost unsharp and with the most lens flare I have ever encountered, which in this case causes halation around highlights. I have used this flare to enhance the quality of spring forest light in some images

Southern Forest Arts Committee for determination beyond sanity to ram this project into Northcliffe Forest Park

NORTHCLIFFE FOREST PARK
The creation of Northcliffe Forest Park was instigated by amateur botanist George Gardner AO and Archie Jackson. The original concept for Northcliffe Forest Park was for it to be a niche of natural environment within the timber industry devastation around Northcliffe, this devastation is continuing. Their original park had only temporary paths running through it. These would be changed every few years, former paths returning to forest before too many feet had compacted the soil

This is in contrast to what has happened with the building of the SFA Sculpture Trail. The SFA Sculpture Trail is not the epheremal event that was described to the Northcliffe Community in the period the SFA Committee was trying to gain local support for this project

The environmental damage, much of it by former environmentalists, to an area designated for conservation has caused me to have mixed feelings about this project

COPYRIGHT & TECHNICAL NOTES
The photo-documentation was self-funded and I hold copyright over these images

These SFA images are the first time I have scanned direct from BW negatives - I prefer scans from prints. The Gimp has been crucial in making the scans workable

To me nothing in photography can or will equal the depth and tonal resonance of a good silver gelatine print

John Austin