Tributary Project

Full description

Background
This research builds on the tradition of walking as a critical spatial practice, harking back to Richard Long’s ‘A line made by walking’ (1967) and more recently to Francis Alys’s ‘Paradox of Praxis’ (1997). Artists Bianca Hester and Lucas Ilhein are practicing in this area within Australia. Walking and conversing together aimed to awaken site research methods and techniques that are infrequently deployed within architecture and landscape architecture. We developed performative drawings, live readings and a series of films documenting our site walks; together, these act as re-mapping actions, exposing poetic, cultural, durational and material dynamics that have been excluded from settler surveys and maps of Melbourne. Our project contributes to an international field of performative site-led research aiming to expose the hidden conditions of cities to promote urban narratives and environmental awareness.

Contribution
For ‘Ground Truth,’ a 10-meter length of paper was laid on the ground. I used a calligraphy nib to trace the shadows projected by the sun. I used my body as an extension of the nib to produce a site-based performance drawing. This ‘movement-drawing’ process exposed how drawer and drawn interact. This is an experimental mapping form that repositions how we notice, record and perform within spaces.

Significance
Conversations recorded during the walks were broadcast on BUS Gallery radio, following selection from a public call for applications. The gallery directors found that our project 'galvanized our efforts to make our radio/online platforms a permanent and robust feature of our future programming’. This led to an unsolicited invitation to develop a TV / film version of the work for BUS TV and a physical installation version of the Tributary project for exhibition in 2022. Our initial collaboration spawned a wider collaboration between landscape architect Saskia Schut and artist Ben Woods. We continue to research the city together.