Frustrations and film fun

Friday the 17th October Yesterday didn’t seem that productive. Although I seemed to have been working all day everyday, this week has gone fast and I don’t feel like I've got much done, time suddenly seems to be slipping away a bit. Yesterday I did pick up a 16 mm projector and a few reels of old films though (and a dead kangaroo's tail on the way), fun fun fun. Didn’t actually get to play with it though as I spent most of today fucking around with bankcards, again. A few things are emerging that I didn’t expect when organising this: banks being useless, internet being really slow, film being hard to order online/over phone. I hate waiting for things and you have to be patient out here. Went out to Lower Glenelg National Park, which is about 10 mins away, late afternoon. Just out of need really, I've felt very unconnected to the land this week, too much time indoors and doing the kind of boring things that have to be done/organised. Took my Kangaroo tail with me. Tomorrow I have a workshop/networking event, that Elise (arts liaison officer I met weaving) told me about, and then I'm going up to a performance in a gallery in Natimuk with her. So a bit of a work/play Saturday, but I'm looking forward to it and intrigued. Then meeting Tim in the 'Little Desert', where he's working. So hopefully camping out, absorbing the earth and making a little work perhaps.

Weaving

Wednesday the 15th October Basket weaving workshop in Hamilton today. The indigenous lady teaching us told us stories about her people and how she learnt to weave, as she wove, and this is how we were to learn: by the end of her story we should know how to weave. I really liked this technique of story telling to teach, and the combination of repetitive action entangled with words washing over you. It was a very satisfying process, and by the end of the day I had a substantially sized basket that is used to catch eels and fish; it has a small hole in the bottom so the little fish can carry on through and further down river. I love that mentality. Unfortunately your not allowed to fish with these anymore, unless you're aboriginal. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure its for ecological reasons, its just a shame; I think there is a lot to be learned from indigenous approaches to life. It was a very social event: sitting, weaving, talking and was really good to be out talking to people. It has been getting a little lonely working away in the museum or out walking alone. I still haven't had many visits from locals, but that’s pretty interesting in itself.

Bleach, dancing and full moons

Tuesday the 14th October I cycled into town avoiding the evil magpies, and carrying far to much tech on my back. First thing I put black out material up on the windows, with slogans similar to my tea posters written in giant writing: enabling to see the films on the viewer better and as an arms waving hello gesture. I had lots of fun spiralling strips of 35 mm film into a bottle of bleach, although my hands are burning. I experimented with different amounts of bleach and drying techniques: either bleaching completely so that I had clear film to work with, or letting the layers of colour separate and run, scratching and smudging as I went. I like this notion of working with found films, and think it would be interesting performativly: playing and watching, then recreating, this could be an ongoing evolution/cycle of work. I found this interesting to think about in the context of the museum where things seem stationary and cemented in time. I also bleached then buried a section of film, digging a hole by the post out side the museum, I'm curious to see what if any the earth and time have on it. The t-shirt plan was also put into manufaction today. With my kids fabric crayons I crudely scrawled out some slogans and rubbishy designs. So far I have one that states "Draw me a map" with some little dotted lines, arrows and stickman style pine trees. The second one has a just about distinguishable teacup and "museum" written on it, obviously not finished yet. I'm planning on pretty much living in these three t-shirts, so hopeful people will respond to them, or at least get me to speak to them if their staring at them curiously. Finally my third effort in mission talk-to-me-Dartmoor, dancing at the community hall. Oh yes. I like to dance in my own special way, but I'm also ridiculously uncoordinated. I wasn't really looking forward to this event, but missed it last week and as Michael pointed out if I went to some of the community events people might come to mine. Actually I was terrified. The prospect of having to follow a dance routine or any kind of line dancing, was making me slightly hysterical: the car journey there seemed ominous as I watched the lines of fields and trees steam past, roaring further out of town. There was a lot of boot scooting, dosey-doeing, and thy slapping (all of which I managed to do in the wrong order), but it wasn't traumatic. It was fun, if a little surreal and I met some more lovely locals, and even got an offer of a drive out to the heart of the pine forest if I wanted to do more filming. The hardest part of this project has been getting out there and being social. I seem to have no idea of what I'm doing as soon as people ask me, and could quite happily spend 10 weeks playing in the forest, hills and rivers by myself or hidden away in darkened rooms experimenting with films. I know this isn't the way forward though, there has to be a balance, and the people and socialness of this community are as much of the context as the land. Driving home there was a massive full moon that set the landscape on fire, casting some kind of mystical blanket over us. Once back at the house I decided to jump in my car with some slide film and video camera and go make some work in the forest. It's amazing how the moon affects you, and how it lights the vegetation. Annoyingly though, my phobia of the dark overtook and I didn’t make it out the car. This moment made me really aware of the difficulties of working solo. It's hard enough to set up camera shots in daylight, but at night in the outback: not only was it going be hard, but probably not the safest thing to be doing. Maybe next full moon I can get some help.

Tea and cake anyone?

Monday the 13th October Last week I put posters up round town saying " Hello Dartmoor, I need your help, Come and talk to me- your artist in residence, There will be tea and cakes @ the museum Mondays from 10 am, *please drop in any other time as well". So this morning I headed into Dartmoor armed with Jannette's recipe date and walnut cake. The plan was to chat to people over tea and cakes, getting some local knowledge on places to visit, favourite walks, beautiful, special or place's with memories and get people to draw me maps. No body came! I wanted to start going on the walks and stitching the maps onto serviettes along with the climate/statistic maps I had started. I was also hoping this could become a weekly event and people could come and sew with me. Obviously this needs a bit of a rethink. I think maybe the time of day was bad, as I guess most people are at work, but I thought the OAP's might have popped in. The tea and cakes sessions have been printed on a Dartmoor newsletter, so maybe I'll get some people next week. As for the sewing group, I'm going to do a bit more research, I'm thinking an evening might be better; we'll see. So I sat drinking tea and sewing alone, did a little bit of sticking pine needles to film and then headed into Portland where I bought various tools for ideas. I managed to get a fire wire, so could upload my videos from the pine forest plantations. And bought some t-shirts as part of my latest plan, that allows me to be a little shy but get Dartmoor talking to me...