Shadow Places

The idea behind Shadow Places comes from Australian Environmental Philosopher, Val Plumwood who wrote about the idea of shadow places as those locations that we rely on, but don’t know. For example, someone in the city might rely on an area such as Narrandera for their food and fibre production, but they might have no relationship to the area, or understand the importance of this location to their life. As such this is a local/regional instantiation of international creative and critical engagement with notions of habitation, locus and identity.
Artistic Director of The Cad Factory Vic McEwan, the convenor/director/auteur of the multi-arts installations and events, says “By holding a large scale outdoor artwork over four nights, we are trying to shine a light on our shadow places. The artworks celebrate ideas of connection amongst people, and encourage an understanding and recognition of the places we need to survive.” Artists from Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and the Riverina were commissioned to create new work for this experimental arts event.
I wrote and submitted four new poems from which McEwan sculpted lines, reconfiguring some of them, and created projections of these texts, across a lagoon, onto a 'wall' of hay-bales in the exhibition precinct.