Pedestrian Poetics for Public Space

Full description

Background: The research is situated in the field of public art (Kwon 2004, Lippard 1997) examining the limits to participation in socially engaged art (Kester 2004, Bishop 2012) in the context of COVID-19 recovery.

Contribution: Now in our 3rd collaboration as artist-researchers, Pedestrian Poetics for Public Space employed site-specific installation to examine how audiences, bushwalkers and tourists engage in the public space of Corhanwarrabul/ Mount Dandenong. Drawing on Fluxus methods, viewers were instructed to use their senses, emotions, and bodies to interpret the site. At a time of heightened social anxieties, the work encouraged viewers to experience the natural world in new ways by interacting with the temporary whimsical ‘traffic signs’. 7 text based works in the bush directed viewers to listen to the natural and cultural histories of the site through instruction, ie: Can you walk more softly on this land? or Bird song listening zone. The work contributed to a curation aimed at a better understanding of the connections to the site including Indigenous history and ecological regeneration.

Significance:
The work was curated by Gretel Taylor to complement a dance and movement focused artistic program: Dancing Place: Corhanwarrabul, which offered a range of immersive sensory, aesthetic and cultural experiences. Other contributors included Elder Murrundindi and artists Djirri Djirri, Gulsen Ozer, Dani-Ela Kayler, and the Environmental Performance Authority (EPA), and Vivienne Rogis. Funded through Yarra Ranges Regional Council, the program aimed to explore this natural site through sensory and social works. These new experiential works, including both the artists’ research process and the audience engagement, will inform the development of the new Ridge Walk trails later in 2021 and is archived on the project website. Artist fees were paid and a small article in the local Ranges Trader newspaper highlighted the works.