True North: From the Forest Floor
Curator Christine Willcocks
February – April 2025
GRAFTON REGIONAL GALLERY,
GRAFTON
PALIMPSEST — THE LOST FOREST
Artist Statement by Hopeful Disruptions
Much of the tall original forest in the lower Clarence Valley was cut down by hand in just a few decades during the late 1800s. Isolated trees from the old forests still stand in paddocks, in towns and on roadsides as sentinels to remind us of the forest we have lost. The shadows of these remaining trees are cast over ground that once held the massive, interconnected root and mycorrhizal fungal associations that bound the earth and all trees, connecting the forest across vast areas along the east of the continent. Deborah Taylor re-calls the complexity of this singular sentient entity in her paintings and photographs. As a First Nations artist her perspective is the landscape as her homeland, how it was below and above. Will Rodgers arranges local recordings to create soundscapes that interweave underground soil vibrations, underwater ecologies and the more familiar aerial voices of birds, insects and mammals. These soundscapes connect earth, water and air and give voice to the forest. We can only imagine the footsteps of the Elders who walked these forests and the feeling they experienced as they looked up into the heights of the canopy. The sacred fig tree at the Maclean showgrounds was cut down in 1986. This strangler fig had originally grown on a red cedar tree and was estimated to be over 400 years old. It was around 53 metres high with a canopy more than 40 metres across. This powerful fig tree was once part of the continuous canopy: it witnessed the entire felling of the floodplain forest.
A palimpsest is the trace of an original mark that has been incompletely rubbed away or removed, then overwritten with new text. The old trees that still stand are a palimpsest of the ancient forests that were cleared as part of the violent colonial project. Damage to the forests continues through ongoing clearing and neglect of invasive weeds, especially exotic vines, that suffocate the old trees and pull them into the River during times of flood. Rochelle Summerfield enacts a deep connection with these old lived trees. She gives expression to their enduring life force through on-site engagement with drawing processes and river sediments, creating large-scale works on paper. Her tree portrait is of a giant forest red gum that stands alone in a paddock at Tullymorgan, an ecosystem, that supports the soils and local native wildlife. Like the fig tree, this red gum also witnessed the felling of all its companions.
Through a reversal of scale, using metal, Tracy Pateman considers the singular and incalculable mind of the tree, and the death of the tree. The mind of the tree is sap quickening with the sun rise, the traverse of the stars and moon, the emergence of, and merging with, soil and all life, the ebb and flow of the River. It is the bird mind, the insect mind, the lichen mind and more. There is an imprint of the universe in each precious old tree. The continued felling of these trees is terrible.
Palimpsest – The Lost Forest is a reminder of the forest that once grew along Berinbah/Brerimba Bindarray/Biirrinba (Clarence River). We feel the resonance of those ancient forests today, and of the People who walked those forests. We feel a deep sense of loss for the passing of the ancient forest. Our work is a tribute to the old forests that continue to speak with us and are always waiting to return.
