My chosen topic is “Healthy Rivers”, as this is a significant issue in Australia. The Murray-Darling river sytem is the largest one in Australia with a combined length over 3,500km. The introduction of European farming and irrigation techniques has resulted in too much water being taken out of the river, causing issues with flow, erosion and salinity, affecting fish, plants and other wildlife. Large variations in the water supply occur due to seasonal rain fall, drought and floods, making management even more complex. Water flow in the Murray-Darling river is now regulated through dams and locks and limits on the amount of water which can be extracted. Programs to improve water quality have also been introduced. The Coorong, a natonal park area at the mouth of the river, is a particularly beautiful place that people are keen to preserve.
Page 1: This shows various words I have written down realted to the theme, particularly to express abstract concepts. These include stagnation, healthy, thirsty, serenity, salty, meandering, interdependent, abundant, fertile, desperation, anger, alive, balancing, branching.
Page 2: Rough sketch of the Murray-Darling River system with its many tributaries.
Page 3: Pen and water colour sketches of various elements related to the river, including cracked earth, birds, crops, river mouth and native grasses.
Design Exercises
1. Black paper: This was cut, manipulated or torn into various shapes to try to represent the meanings of selected words:
a) gentle, bend, rhythmical
b) cracked, branching, combined
c) enclosed, entwined
d) cracked, dry, parched, barren
e) partnership, interdependent
f) salinity
g) restful, serenity, gentle, flowing
h) extremes, cycles
i) alive, branching, freedom
j) frenzied, fierce, angry
2. Decorated papers: Selected shapes were torn or cut from decorative papers prepared previously. These were used to start developing some early concepts for the design of the final piece (wall hanging). Colours relevant to the words were used where possible. They included:
a) bend, gentle, rhythmical
b) extremes – angry, fierce, frenzied
c) salinity, crystalline – note shape was changed from exercise 1 after reference to photos of actual salt crystals
d) cracked, dry, parched, barren
e) and g) freedom, branching, alive
f) extremes, cycles
h) cracked, combined, branching
I realised that the bottom shape was relevant to both a branching river and the parched, cracked earth in a drouhgt, so then looked at the idea of using the same shape in two different colours to give opposite impressions. This could be the basis for an interesting design element (2 i).
j) and k) ears of grain can be used to give an impression of growth, abundance
l) wavy water shapes depicting flow, tranquility superimposed on a background of dried up earth (photocopy of a dyed cloth) and
m) branched river shape superimposed on a background of dried up earth (photocopy of a dyed cloth)
3. Reference to some earlier fabric samples
These two samples were produced in the 2015 Summer School class with Sarah Burgess. I thought both of them were relevant to this new topic. The fragments of stitched lines in the first reminded me of the branches of a river. The second long one, with three panels and a strong blue line running through it, reminded me of a series of scenes along a river.
4. Initial rough design concept
I distilled the words researched earlier into 6 that seemed most relevant to the theme:
- drought
- flood
- salinity
- cycles
- abundance
- flow
I also liked the idea of a strong image of a river running through the piece as the unifying theme.
This mock up (only A3 at this stage) shows an idea of overlaying the six concepts along the river. I plan to use this as a starting point for my workshop at Summer School 2016. I am thinking of calling the work “River Cycle”.
