Jinibara/Kabi Kabi/Yuggara/Country (Samford)
Carer Team
March 6, 2024
Grassland Community of Care (More Than Human Persons), Keith Armstrong, 2023
This artwork was inspired by the goodwill and interpersonal engagement of Carbon_Dating’s artist/carer team. Keith now asks, what might a 'community of care' look like for the native grasses themselves? He approaches this speculative investigation through abstract, ultra-close observations of these enigmatic flowering plants, both living and preserved – intimating their presence, power, activity and agency.
Audio/video Installation and assemblage
Materials:
- 4k video still from 10-minute animation, 55 inch 4k monitor, stereo audio.
Measurements:
Various
Monitor dimension 112x64x10cm including wall mount. Timber framing panels size variable
The project carer for Samford was Carbon Dating director Keith Armstrong, assisted by SERF site technician Marcus Yates. (See bios in tab above). This was the first of the grass gardens for the project and was established in January 2022 - an extremely wet summer for Qld (Australia) - and hence not conducive to local grass growth. The grass garden was planted on flat ground rather than on the mound used at all other sites - and was located at a sited adjacent to the 'Barracks' - the central research centre and accommodation block on that site. Whilst there was not one of the project's Interweavers (as designed by donna davis) at that site, a data/weather monitoring system (custom built by Keith Armstrong) recorded real time weather data at this grass garden site. This data, streamed to the Internet, then automatically directed the composition of a soundtrack (designed and composed by project artist Luke Lickfold) which was then combined with a time lapse of the Samford grasses' growth throughout each 24hr periods. These new daily videos/audio tracks were automatically streamed each day to the project's Interweavers (see below) located at all the other Qld Australia based carer sites - Miles, Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Somerset Gold Coast. A history of these Interweaver videos can accessed from this site's home page.
Keith and Marcus planted Barbed Wire, Silky Blue, Kangaroo Grass, Scented Top and Kangaroo Grass - all endemic grasses suitable for that Country/bioregion. Curly Mitchell was also planted which typically grows in W. Queensland, and Black Spear is distributed throughout much of E. Queensland particularly in areas receiving between 600 mm and 1,000 mm annual rainfall.
Marcus Yates is Samford Ecological Research Facility's lead technician, with extensive experience in plant nursery work, plant science and regenerative forestry work. He has assisted the project enthusiastically with both advice on and growing of native grasses.
Keith Armstrong is the project director for Carbon Dating. He is an experimental artist profoundly motivated by issues of social and ecological justice. His engaged, participative practices provoke audiences to comprehend, envisage and imagine collective pathways towards sustainable futures. He has specialised for over twenty-three years in collaborative, experimental practices with emphasis upon innovative performance forms, site-specific electronic arts, networked interactive installations, alternative interfaces, art-science collaborations and socially and ecologically engaged practices. See embodied media.com.
Carbon_Dating is an experimental artwork designed to seed ‘consensual’ partnerships between Australian native grasses and humans, based upon their shared need to breathe each other’s ‘exhaled’ air.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many lands on which we live, work and create, including our collaborators on Yirrganydji, Barunggam, Jagera/Yuggera, Turbal, Ugarapul, Jinibara, Kabi Kabi and Kombumerri Country. We acknowledge their ongoing connection and custodianship for Country. We pay our deep respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We recognise First Nations people as the first artists and scientists. Always was, always will be.
The 2024-5 Carbon_Dating exhibition tour is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts QueenslandAssisted by QUT School of Creative Practice, International Art Services (IAS), Native Seeds Pty Ltd, Artfully, and Embodied Media.
Between 2019-23 this project was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. It was also supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government: Cairns Regional Council; Western Downs Regional Council; City of Gold Coast Council; Somerset Regional Council; and ArtsCoast as part of Sunshine Coast Council’s RADF program to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Thanks also to QUT (School of Creative Practice, QUT Office of eResearch and Samford Ecological Research Facility). NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Dogwood Crossing Gallery, Miles; HOTA, Gold Coast; The Condensery, Toogooloowah; Caloundra Regional Gallery, Caloundra; Native Seeds Pty Ltd and ReBul Packaging.
