Dappled Landscape
Dappled Landscape is an installation in the central business district of Orange, commissioned by Orange City Council as part of FutureCity Public Art Project.
Dappled Landscape is a ceramic installation piece in McNamara Street, Orange. Inspired by glimpses of eucalyptus leaves, Dappled Landscape brings nature into the urban concreted environment. As our local natural landscape is a valuable feature of Orange and a common reason for people to choose to live here, it is important for it to be brought into the developed areas of the city. By taking aspect of the local environment and then abstracting it, the artwork will share a new perspective of Orange to local and visiting audiences.
I was inspired for this work while walking my pug Ivy at the Gosling Creek off-leash dog park. During my walks, I practice a meditative grounding exercise where I list 5 things I can see, hear and feel. A frequently named item was the light coming through the leaves. There is one branch that hangs across the path leading to the dam that I approach from the south, and the sun dapples between the leaves as I draw near it. It is one of my favourite sights. With the sun playing with my sight, sometimes distorting harshly, I used this idea of abstracted eucalyptus to develop an organic texture installation.
This artwork is designed to be engaged by the audience in a tactile and visual fashion. By utilizing a variety of textures, the audience is invited to explore the work by touch so they can feel the subtle variations of the surface. Because this work is not being displayed in a gallery setting, the installation becomes more welcoming and informal to encourage the general public to engage with and touch the work. Inclusivity has been a major consideration in the development of this work. Public art for the community means exploring ways to include all people, particularly those who may struggle in a mainstream art setting including vision-impaired people, colour-blind people and people who experience and process senses differently. The installation is positioned along the wall suitable to accommodate a variety of heights in the hope that most people will be able to feel some of the tiles.
During this project I became besotted with eucalyptus leaves. I have collected leaves during my walks and decorate my studio wall with them. Inspired by Greg Daly’s method of observing through silhouettes of ceramic forms, I have also cut leaves into silhouettes of cups, bowls, plates and stuck them into journals. I become fascinated with looking up close at the visual textures created by the mottled colours.
Once all the tiles were finished and dried John and I bisque fired them. At this point my husband and I had purchased a house and began preparing to move kiln, tiles and all. John kindly offered to fire the tiles in his family’s ceramic studio in Cowra. Soon after arriving in Cowra the flooding rain started (October 2022). While the house and studio remained safely unaffected, a moat effectively surrounded the property, and the access roads and driveway flooded. The lake that was created over the driveway lasted for months. As unfired glaze can chip off ceramics, the tiles were transported without the glaze applied. Therefore, before the tiles could be fired, I needed to apply the glaze. As we were unsure of how long the water would last and if there would be more rain, I was very fortunate that John and John’s mother Catherine hosted me for a week allowing me to come and glaze them. I had to kayak over the new lake to get into the property. After I had applied the glaze, John and Greg fired them.
The journey
This was my first public artwork, and by far the largest work I have created. So, as you can imagine, there was a steep learning curve. The exceptional John Daly was my mentor during this project and the guidance and encouragement he provided throughout the process was invaluable.
It started with a visit to the Daly Studio where I experimented with glazes and discussed the textures I wanted to achieve. Greg Daly introduced me to the idea of using coloured slip. I then spent the next few months testing and experimenting with slips and stains. This was followed by experiments with application methods and adding layers of colours.
I then began throwing discs and decorating them with slips. I made very large discs which did not survive the firing as S cracks formed or tiles completely exploded. This dictated the limit of the size I could produce.
Now I was ready to start making the tiles. I went to order the clay and found out the base red clay was no longer being produced and I couldn’t get the required amount. After revising the available clays, I picked another similar clay. However, after waiting 2 months for my order, I cancelled it and ordered directly from the manufacturer. I had trouble ordering a large amount of clay (over 500kg) and getting it to Orange as I realised my car couldn’t take that much weight. I pursued buying a ute in order to collect my purchase from Gosford some 4 hours away.
After returning I feverishly began making, taking over our 3 bedroom apartment with tiles. We rearranged the house numerous times to accommodate the drying tiles. The collection of tiles first consumed the pottery room and then my husband’s office /music room. Then more of my husband’s music room was consumed once I had moved the piano and bookshelf out only leaving him with a desk in there, and even that got covered in drying tiles.
