The temporary installation Fire Circle was a sculptural, sound, video, spoken, and text-based installation exploring the sublime qualities of fire in the Australian landscape, from immense devastation and fear to the sensibility of wonder, awe, and beauty.
The installation shown at TCL during the 2021 Nature Festival in Adelaide is a response to the devastating Australian bushfires in late 2019-early 2020, particularly the extensive fires on Kangaroo Island. It explores TCL’s ongoing fascination with fire and its destructive yet rejuvenating effect on the landscape. This mixed-media installation was created by a collaborative team from diverse creative disciplines.
Burnt branches from various species were gathered from a client’s property at Kangaroo Island in South Australia – a fire-ravaged island where two-thirds of the land was burnt by high-intensity fires, resulting in the massive loss of endangered species and habitat. These twisted blackened branches were clipped and placed in existing circles of red sand- a sculptural work entitled Rising, originally constructed by the late Kevin Taylor in 2009, with the fiery red sand circles being a reference to his work in dry and desert landscapes. Repurposing the sand circles was an important and sustainable component of Fire Circle.
Over one evening during the 2021 Nature Festival, visitors experienced a multimedia installation that brought together performance, storytelling, and reflection on fire in the Australian landscape.
Traditional Owner and long-time TCL collaborator Karl Telfer opened the event with a Welcome to Country and a short talk sharing his perspectives on Caring for Country in relation to fire. Classical musician Simone Slattery presented an evocative video and soundscape incorporating recordings of fire, images of the aftermath of the Kangaroo Island fires, and a poem by Maggie Slattery superimposed over the imagery. Creative writer Stephen Muecke recited his prose piece Fire, demonstrating the power of oral storytelling as a memorable way of conveying knowledge. Although two of the branch circles installed for the event were later removed due to building works, a year and a half on a third circle of blackened branches remains, standing as a potent reminder of the effects of fire in the Australian landscape.
Below are extracts from both the poem and prose:
The Remembered Flame
When all at once, everything catches alight
and the sudden gust
sounds a loud roar that splits
into overtones
high over the trees and low along the ridges crying
all is fire all is fluid
-Maggie Slattery
Fire
Banksia logic ensures that seed
release does not occur just with the fire,
but in response to the onset of rains
following fire. How do they know all this?
Human terror faced with the supernatural
strength of fires makes us seem out of place,
strangers to its mysterious beauty.
Yet, rational beings, we fear nothing
until it is too late, forgetting the
wisdom grown in the ancient Banksias,
co-existent, co-evolved, with fire and rain.
-Stephen Muecke
Data
Landscape architecture: T.L.C
Photo credits: Jackie Gu, Kate Cullity, Michael Kluvanek
Other credits: Karl Telfer, Stephen Meucke, Simone Slattery, Maggie Slattery
