Vivienne Dadour

Traces in a Landscape: On the Edge of Greta

A collaborative exhibition by artists Vivienne Dadour and Liz Ashburn at Articulate Project Space May 3rd- 27th 2012.

… traces are not simply residual remains, signs and clues, but the material evidence, the stuff of history, the archive.
 (Charles Merewether 2006 A Language to Come: Japanese Photography After the Event// 2002, in The Archive, Documents of Contemporary Art  co-published by Whitechapel and The MIT Press,  P12.)1

 

Traces in a Landscape: On the Edge of Greta, is the culmination of a collaborative project by two Sydney artists, Vivienne Dadour and Elizabeth Ashburn, which has extended from 2009 to 2012. Their project was conceived as an archaeological investigation of a site near Greta that had been formerly used as an army camp and later as a centre for migrant resettlement (1939-59). Dadour and Ashburn have engaged with examining the present landscape for the residue and remnants of previous actions or occupancy through an active process of art making related to what has survived. Their intention to develop this project was strengthened after researching the site and experiencing the way it continues to embody the past’s tenacious preserve.  Dadour and Ashburn have responded individually and collaboratively using photography, watercolour and drawing to express the presence/absence dimension of this landscape.

The landscape of the present can tell the stories of past peoples, places and events and learning about the past through its material remains is familiar in the practice of archaeologists in their recovering, collecting and visually documenting physical traces in order to prevent the past being buried or obliterated. This form of forensic art making attempts to ascertain what might remain for the present and assumes fragmentation as a condition that these artists not only represent, but also endeavour to work through.

The large scale of the site visually immerses the viewer, while remnants of buildings and traces of occupation are still present in the surviving landscape. When the migrant camp was closed the huts were removed and sent to other camps and, until now, the land has been used for cattle grazing, obliterating much of the built areas but leaving many traces of its previous usage. This has left residue such as foundations, drainage systems, footpaths and fragments of some buildings. These traces are overgrown with lush foliage, allowing only partial glimpses as they become almost indistinguishable from their environment.

Such residue still provides evidence of connections and fragmentations to a past; tangible examples of the relationship between memory and place that provide an enduring presence. They are landmarks of life and death; markings in the ground outline the foundations of buildings — traces of clinics, hospitals, schools, living quarters, theatre, canteens, administration and sanitation areas appear as “remnants of a culture — anthropological relics that had absorbed the history of their use ... and have mutated into a newly dysfunctional 'site' in the process.” (Victoria Lynn 'Between art and nature' Australian Perspecta p17, 1997)

When remnants remain of original usage they are material evidence in giving a window into the past. Consequently these artists feel it important to focus on this site now, as they fear that with future radical redevelopment these remnants and their meaning may be lost.

Dadour photographed the landscape both as document and exploration, capturing a sense of both representation and disappearance through a series of photo based diptychs based on a stereoscopic format. This is a technique for enhancing the illusion of depth in an image thus creating multiple layers. The stereoscopic format provides a ‘container’, a narrative framework that makes connections and pieces together meanings, fragments, observations, fieldwork and imaginings. Ashburn has placed forensic drawings of these remnants of culture as a form of visual archive, together with drawings of other later structures such as cattle yards, with images of the current landscape. These are contained in a circular frame to act as a lens to produce a narrative responding to the place and its history. The landscape is also framed by the outline of one of the timber huts. These were bare and spartan yet these spaces were the container for hopes and dreams of new lives.

Their art practice acknowledges that landscape is ‘a site of remembrance and belonging. As transient lives passed through it, ‘we represent it and it represents us.' (Joseph Mallard. “Terra Nullius” Law, Text, Culture, Autumn, 1998, p49) Just as the occupants of the Greta site were situated on the edge of the town of Greta, Ashburn and Dadour are aware they also on the edge of the multiple histories of this site. This protest against forgetting aligns with the political sub-texts often found in the work of these artists through their concern in revealing what may have been obliterated, ignored, hidden or obscured. One implication of this collaboration is that by making aspects of this site accessible to others a reality implicit in this regenerated landscape can now be shared.

Art works by Liz Ashburn may be viewed on her website lizashburn.com

 

HISTORY OF THE SITE

The town of Greta is located to the north of Maitland on the New England Highway between Singleton in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. During 1939-49 a site outside Greta became the largest army training camp in Australia. Between 1949-1959, as the Greta Migrant Camp, it was the venue for a massive immigration program for those displaced by the conflict in Europe during the Second World War. War and migration continue to be significant events for Australians and this particular location has not only prepared Australian soldiers for their involvement in international conflicts but also accepted the great wave of post-war migrants.

The artists would like to thank Articulate Project Space, Uri Windt and Inside History for their support in this project.

 

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