Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Tasmania: Artists work to save Tarkine

A group of 70 artists have spent their Easter break exploring a remote part of north-west Tasmania and creating works they hope will lead to the area's protection.

Known as the Tarkine region, it includes the second largest cool temperate rainforest in the world, Aboriginal heritage sites and a windswept coastline.

But protection of the region is highly contentious, and is opposed by the Federal and Tasmanian governments because forestry logging coupes, mines and mineral exploration leases cover the bulk of its territory.

Time lapse photographer Daniel Johnson travelled from Victoria to what is known as the Edge of the World, a rugged coastal area with big swell and surging kelp near the Arthur River.

Tarkine in Motion artist

"I'm out here to time lapse the scene change, with the light and crazy waves and the time of day into night; the moon tonight which is a blood moon," he said.

"I think it should be protected because it's pretty amazing.

"I've never seen tea tree forest like this before, and all the rock formations."

Bruny Island musician Julius Schwing has been composing music inspired by the Tarkine's natural sounds.

"The material I've been writing here; I've basically been like a novelist taking sketches, taking small ideas which I'll take home and develop," he said.

Who wouldn't love them? Just that ageless timeless sedimentary process that you can see eroded away, it's the bones of the landscape and it makes me feel very connected here.

Printmaker Deb Wace

"I see them as quite minimal music; very constant, primal, ancient music that's a cross between sound-scapes but still melodic.

"For instance, there's a lot of low-end rumble from the waves, so I instantly think low-end rumble.

"And there's wind, so that's kind of a high end frequency, so you've already got two extremes."

Schwing felt the power of those winds when a gust of 50 knots threw his guitar against the rocks and damaged it.

"At the time I sat there for a solid five to 10 minutes, head in hands," he said.

"But then I did a whole bunch of improvisations with it as it was, and I thought 'Oh well, I'll say the Tarkine retuned it'."

Printmaker Deb Wace was inspired by the jagged lines carved into rock formations at Sarah Anne Rocks.

"Who wouldn't love them? Just that ageless timeless sedimentary process that you can see eroded away, it's the bones of the landscape and it makes me feel very connected here," she said.

"[I feel] very much a part of it and I'm trying to express what I feel artistically."

Printmaker Deb Wace

National park push rejected by Federal and state governments

The works created by the artists will be shown at exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart under the banner Tarkine in Motion, and there are plans for a one-hour documentary film.

The project was sponsored by the Bob Brown Foundation at a cost of over $10,000, and aims to garner support for the Tarkine to become a 450,000-hectare national park.

Campaign manager at the Bob Brown Foundation, Jenny Weber, said that the area "runs from the Pieman River in the south to further than the Arthur River up the coast for the extraordinary natural and indigenous heritage we have in the Tarkine".

Artists perform and collaborate to help the Tarkine

"It also runs out to through to the Savage River," she said.

"The Tarkine has the largest tract of cool temperate rainforest in Australia.

"There are significant tracts of wilderness quality and extraordinary coastlines."

No comments: