m i c h e l e m o r c o s
The landscape shapes my memories.
My memories shape the landscape.
In 1996 I had the privilege of travelling and discovering the beauty and energy of Mutawintji National Park, Broken Hill and Fowlers Gap that are on the traditional lands of Malyangapa, Pandjikali and Wilyakali peoples, in Far Western NSW. I was overwhelmed and emotional at being in this landscape - filled with ancient history and a kaleidoscope of colour and light. I felt like I had discovered the key, or source, akin to having a spiritual experience. For a long time I was not sure how I could describe and creatively articulate this sensory experience. And so I waited.
Until now.
In 2017 I unconsciously started to slowly and quietly work on a series drawings and paintings that focused on two places that have shaped my life in a significant way. The aforementioned areas of Mutawintji and Broken Hill, and the Riverina district which is on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri peoples.
Through multimedia drawings, paintings and coil woven objects, this series of work creates a multilayered visual landscape that asks us to look at the infinitesimal details of nature, and feel the colour, beauty and poetry that quietly surrounds us in the every –when.*
* At any or all times. The Australian anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner conveyed the idea in his 1956 essay The Dreaming, in which he coined the term ‘everywhen’. “One cannot ‘fix’ The Dreaming in time: it was, and is, everywhen” wrote Stanner, adding that The Dreaming “… has … an unchallengeable sacred authority”.
