ANNIQUE GOLDENBERG :: LIVING WATER: the river hid
19 July - 6 Sept 2014
Gallery Upstairs
19 JULY – 6 SEPTEMBER 2014
Upstairs Gallery
The lightness of the early morning mist floats just above the water’s surface, eddying and glowing gently. I approach the bend in the river, silently drifting around the corner so that the next stretch is revealed to me, as if being discovered for the first time by any human. Banks of trees to my right are shining, their branches heavy with the weight of hundreds of white birds. For one frozen moment the birds examine me and I feel an intense stillness, and then suddenly, in unison, as if some unspoken message of discovery has been relayed, they all take flight, their wings deafening as they beat the air, their bodies filling my vision and blotting out the sky as they fly away and leave me alone on the river.
When I first approached this body of work I was interested in discovering and somehow evoking the connection the current residents in and around Lismore have to the large river system nestled in their midst. I researched the history of the area and searched out locals, trying to unlock their stories of the river where they lived and worked. But the conversations were stilted, the sharing of memory did not flow easily and what slowly became apparent was that in fact this body of work was not about other’s memories but rather about a re-connection with water and river for me, a journey linking me both to the town of Lismore and back through to my childhood.
I embarked on a series of kayak trips up and down the Wilson River and Leycester Creek, travelling at different times of the day, in changeable weather and on different days of the week. I recorded aspects of the experience through photographs and sound recordings and collected water from each trip as well as making marks and notes in my journal.
I took this physical evidence, along with the imprint of the trip on my senses and psyche, back to the studio and started to translate these experiences into small ice ink drawings on glass. This is a process that has developed for me over time, the act of choosing the colours, freezing them in the water collected, and then placing the ice cubes onto the glass to melt. This practice results in drawings created in partnership; an invitation to the aleatorical mark where chance is incorporated into the creative process, the human hand and intent in partnership with the materials chosen. These drawings are then actively influenced by their physical environment (temperature, humidity and dust). I then scan the drawings, reinterpreting and layering them into digital prints. Throughout my process, whether it be working with glass, ink and ice, digital media , photographs, sound or scanned water drawings, I discover a coalescence of the mood and memory of that physical time on the river and the emotions provoked.
