Bob Whitworth
13th November 2007, 09:37 AM
Rainforest Walk for Artists.
At the back of my farm located in south east Queensland, I’ve made a walking track that does a circuit connecting places of interest such as large rainforest trees, a creek, granite boulders, cave, hut, lookout, and a shrine. At 10 am on Sunday the 9th December, I will be taking anyone interested on the walk. I’ve written a little essay about my walking track which I’ve called, “The Jungle Path as a Venue for Art” and another essay called, “My Jungle Shrine”. I’ll post these essays below. The Jungle Shrine essay, I’ve ever read on the radio earlier this year. I will also be giving a talk about my walking track at the Gympie Art Gallery at 1:30 pm on the 5th December.
I also host the occasional visitor who usually come to experience what I call, rustic Australiana. This is usually arranged through a work in exchange for keep internet site www.helpexchange.net . If anyone wants to stay for a few days, they would be most welcome.
Woody visitors can have a look at a few of my trees such as my red cedars and planted forests of a variety of species.
The Jungle Path as a Venue for Art.
I host the occasional visitor or small group who come to experience a walk on my jungle path. Visitors enter through a large old silver gate and then up to the old style Queensland house where the pitch of the roof imitates the peak of the mountain behind the house.
The path leads from the comforts of the house and into the dark and mysterious realm of the jungle. The path is the ribbon of smooth over rough places, leading us in comparative safety and security into the unknown and uncivilised jungle. From the path we view into and over the wilds and feel that the unknown has been tamed. Art is the achievement of civilisation but uncivilised nature draws us with the allure of its beauty. My path explores the tension between these two opposites.
The first seat is at a water hole in the gully. This water hole is miraculously always full as it is fed by a little gully that I’ve never know in over 30 years to stop flowing. A carved sign says, “Normality Ends; Reality Begins”?
Just over the other side of the gully is a tree with the initials of CM carved into it. Who did this and for what reason is now totally lost.
A little further on, we enter one of my ordered forests with the trees so tall and straight and all planted in rows, well sort of anyway. One of the trees here has done the impossible and instead of growing upwards like all the rest of them, has by a freak of nature grown into a circle before heading upwards again.
We now glance at a strategically placed rock and the question is posed, is it natural or has it been placed there by the hand of man and if so, for what reason? Is the motivation art or is it just a whim? Man has been placing rocks for thousands of years and I’m drawn to the pastime as well but I don’t know why.
A small clearing is entered and here there is a small and remote hut. Inside is a little mural painted by two hippy girls. One a business graduate from the US with a professional background and whose father was employed on some secret mission in the Pentagon and the other a natural free spirited hippy from NZ. Together they were travelling the great magical land of Oz doing spontaneous abstract murals as acts of goodwill. After sampling the casual life of a hippy, I never discovered how successfully the US girl returned to the grim reality of her business world. The sign in the hut says "The Edge of the Known World". The path is taking us beyond the known and into the mysterious unknown.
Next a fork in the path marked by a cairn, the ancient sign of human habitation. This should still be standing unless the cows have knocked it down since they hate all aspects of my landscape art. Take the right hand path. The other path is for the more adventurous for it climbs steeply up the hill over rocks and then into tunnel for part of the way before coming out at another lookout.
If you look carefully at your feet, a little further on, there is a piece of bent and rusted barbed wire. Further to the right, is even the well preserved remains of an old fence. This fence is symbolic of the changes that have occurred. One hundred years ago this was untouched rainforest. It was cleared and burnt and turned into bananas and pasture for cattle and a fence was build with confidence for the future. Now this phase seems almost impossible to perceive as the jungle advances slowly and relentlessly and civilisation is in retreat. This is an example of Australian gothic in the landscape. A now mysterious ruin of a lost or declining civilisation and a way of life now almost totally lost.
Just before the next intersection, look up and there is in abstract form a galloping horse in wire and fibreglass. This track goes across the gully and up the slope, past a giant ancient rainforest tree over rocks and on to cave. Some one even came all the way from the U.S. to experience the closeness of nature in this cave.
A little further on along the main track is another seat and my jungle shrine. Here there is a collection of quirky and poignant things, an old cow bone, a broken piece of pottery, bent pieces of wood, reject glass beads and even a piece of gold foil. I like very much the japanese word of wabi sabi meaning ordinary but profound, the subtle beauty of nature, and the profound in the ordinary. Visitors are invited to mount the dais, sound the gong, a fortuitously found hub cap, and to give a spontaneous talk on what ever subject is upper most in their minds. For example, to quote a visitor, "I used to walk up to your big silver front gate and think that what ever lay beyond it was a mystery, now that I’ve had a look, I now know that the mystery is even greater!" Yes I like the thought.
Visitors are invited to collect a piece of broken pottery and to take it with them and to add it to the walking track where ever it seems appropriate. When we walk the path, we wear it down fractionally and it is beneficial to make a little reparation. These discarded pieces of pottery which were once useful, broken into uselessness and now have become useful again. To walk the path and to be momentarily caught by surprise by a glint of broken pottery may allow us in the instant to see things differently.
Further into the jungle and another seat. Here a drink is offered with a natural rock chalice from the clear water of a spring in the creek. More broken pottery from times past. Another cairn is slowly rising as suitable rocks are found and added.
The path now turns to the right and gradually climbs the hill side. A look out rock is reached with a view over the valley below. In a crevice in the cliff behind the lookout is another cow bone. This bone has the word "GOMPA" painted on to it. This bone was found when I planted the Gympie messmate tree beside the lookout. Bear a moment’s thought to the days when one hundred cows lived here and they needed to graze so high up on this rugged hill side for grass. Circumstances change. The word gompa is a shrine dedicated to the Buddha. This was painted by a japanese lady who visited here a year ago. She was of Shinto/zen Buddhist background and had studied in India. For her, beauty was found at every turn of the path and every twist of a leaf. When she walked the path, at suitable places as reverence to the beauty of nature, she painted a japanese character in watercolour paints on leaves, rocks and stems. Upon seeing the cow bone, she prostrated herself in deference to the lost life. On it she paints the word, gompa. I suppose as an attempt to somewhat redeem the situation. Never has my walking track been so greatly revered!
A little further on are some fig trees growing over rocks. These are the same species that are growing over the temples at Ankor Wat. A closely related species to this tree, was under which the Buddha received enlightenment. The high roots and low branches symbolically pull together the distant worlds of earth and heaven.
Just beyond is a human face in the cliff. The face looks rather severe as it looks down on my farm below. On each cheek is painted a japanese character. One is now almost invisible due to the ravages of time and the meaning is now lost, the other is a word that may be translated as respect.
Past another cliff and some over hanging rocks with a ledge and a few offerings and another character. This can still be understood and just recently I was told that it says "thank you". I appreciate the thought.
On now to a large seat made from the wood from a giant tree. This tree was so large that the cross cut saw that cut it down had only an inch on either side to work with and so the process was very slow and difficult as the story was told to me by the old man who cut it down in his youth. Eventually the tree was felled and speared down below. We can’t help but dwell on human folly. The effort to cut the ancient forest, the effort to grow bananas on the steep slope, the effort to keep it free of weeds for grazing cattle, the lost battle due to the persistence of the invading weeds, the supreme battle to attack the weeds and plant a new forest while staggering over these giant logs and the effort to keep the weeds in check until the trees can stand alone. We sit on the seat and ponder! The rest has been edited out due to space reasons.
At the back of my farm located in south east Queensland, I’ve made a walking track that does a circuit connecting places of interest such as large rainforest trees, a creek, granite boulders, cave, hut, lookout, and a shrine. At 10 am on Sunday the 9th December, I will be taking anyone interested on the walk. I’ve written a little essay about my walking track which I’ve called, “The Jungle Path as a Venue for Art” and another essay called, “My Jungle Shrine”. I’ll post these essays below. The Jungle Shrine essay, I’ve ever read on the radio earlier this year. I will also be giving a talk about my walking track at the Gympie Art Gallery at 1:30 pm on the 5th December.
I also host the occasional visitor who usually come to experience what I call, rustic Australiana. This is usually arranged through a work in exchange for keep internet site www.helpexchange.net . If anyone wants to stay for a few days, they would be most welcome.
Woody visitors can have a look at a few of my trees such as my red cedars and planted forests of a variety of species.
The Jungle Path as a Venue for Art.
I host the occasional visitor or small group who come to experience a walk on my jungle path. Visitors enter through a large old silver gate and then up to the old style Queensland house where the pitch of the roof imitates the peak of the mountain behind the house.
The path leads from the comforts of the house and into the dark and mysterious realm of the jungle. The path is the ribbon of smooth over rough places, leading us in comparative safety and security into the unknown and uncivilised jungle. From the path we view into and over the wilds and feel that the unknown has been tamed. Art is the achievement of civilisation but uncivilised nature draws us with the allure of its beauty. My path explores the tension between these two opposites.
The first seat is at a water hole in the gully. This water hole is miraculously always full as it is fed by a little gully that I’ve never know in over 30 years to stop flowing. A carved sign says, “Normality Ends; Reality Begins”?
Just over the other side of the gully is a tree with the initials of CM carved into it. Who did this and for what reason is now totally lost.
A little further on, we enter one of my ordered forests with the trees so tall and straight and all planted in rows, well sort of anyway. One of the trees here has done the impossible and instead of growing upwards like all the rest of them, has by a freak of nature grown into a circle before heading upwards again.
We now glance at a strategically placed rock and the question is posed, is it natural or has it been placed there by the hand of man and if so, for what reason? Is the motivation art or is it just a whim? Man has been placing rocks for thousands of years and I’m drawn to the pastime as well but I don’t know why.
A small clearing is entered and here there is a small and remote hut. Inside is a little mural painted by two hippy girls. One a business graduate from the US with a professional background and whose father was employed on some secret mission in the Pentagon and the other a natural free spirited hippy from NZ. Together they were travelling the great magical land of Oz doing spontaneous abstract murals as acts of goodwill. After sampling the casual life of a hippy, I never discovered how successfully the US girl returned to the grim reality of her business world. The sign in the hut says "The Edge of the Known World". The path is taking us beyond the known and into the mysterious unknown.
Next a fork in the path marked by a cairn, the ancient sign of human habitation. This should still be standing unless the cows have knocked it down since they hate all aspects of my landscape art. Take the right hand path. The other path is for the more adventurous for it climbs steeply up the hill over rocks and then into tunnel for part of the way before coming out at another lookout.
If you look carefully at your feet, a little further on, there is a piece of bent and rusted barbed wire. Further to the right, is even the well preserved remains of an old fence. This fence is symbolic of the changes that have occurred. One hundred years ago this was untouched rainforest. It was cleared and burnt and turned into bananas and pasture for cattle and a fence was build with confidence for the future. Now this phase seems almost impossible to perceive as the jungle advances slowly and relentlessly and civilisation is in retreat. This is an example of Australian gothic in the landscape. A now mysterious ruin of a lost or declining civilisation and a way of life now almost totally lost.
Just before the next intersection, look up and there is in abstract form a galloping horse in wire and fibreglass. This track goes across the gully and up the slope, past a giant ancient rainforest tree over rocks and on to cave. Some one even came all the way from the U.S. to experience the closeness of nature in this cave.
A little further on along the main track is another seat and my jungle shrine. Here there is a collection of quirky and poignant things, an old cow bone, a broken piece of pottery, bent pieces of wood, reject glass beads and even a piece of gold foil. I like very much the japanese word of wabi sabi meaning ordinary but profound, the subtle beauty of nature, and the profound in the ordinary. Visitors are invited to mount the dais, sound the gong, a fortuitously found hub cap, and to give a spontaneous talk on what ever subject is upper most in their minds. For example, to quote a visitor, "I used to walk up to your big silver front gate and think that what ever lay beyond it was a mystery, now that I’ve had a look, I now know that the mystery is even greater!" Yes I like the thought.
Visitors are invited to collect a piece of broken pottery and to take it with them and to add it to the walking track where ever it seems appropriate. When we walk the path, we wear it down fractionally and it is beneficial to make a little reparation. These discarded pieces of pottery which were once useful, broken into uselessness and now have become useful again. To walk the path and to be momentarily caught by surprise by a glint of broken pottery may allow us in the instant to see things differently.
Further into the jungle and another seat. Here a drink is offered with a natural rock chalice from the clear water of a spring in the creek. More broken pottery from times past. Another cairn is slowly rising as suitable rocks are found and added.
The path now turns to the right and gradually climbs the hill side. A look out rock is reached with a view over the valley below. In a crevice in the cliff behind the lookout is another cow bone. This bone has the word "GOMPA" painted on to it. This bone was found when I planted the Gympie messmate tree beside the lookout. Bear a moment’s thought to the days when one hundred cows lived here and they needed to graze so high up on this rugged hill side for grass. Circumstances change. The word gompa is a shrine dedicated to the Buddha. This was painted by a japanese lady who visited here a year ago. She was of Shinto/zen Buddhist background and had studied in India. For her, beauty was found at every turn of the path and every twist of a leaf. When she walked the path, at suitable places as reverence to the beauty of nature, she painted a japanese character in watercolour paints on leaves, rocks and stems. Upon seeing the cow bone, she prostrated herself in deference to the lost life. On it she paints the word, gompa. I suppose as an attempt to somewhat redeem the situation. Never has my walking track been so greatly revered!
A little further on are some fig trees growing over rocks. These are the same species that are growing over the temples at Ankor Wat. A closely related species to this tree, was under which the Buddha received enlightenment. The high roots and low branches symbolically pull together the distant worlds of earth and heaven.
Just beyond is a human face in the cliff. The face looks rather severe as it looks down on my farm below. On each cheek is painted a japanese character. One is now almost invisible due to the ravages of time and the meaning is now lost, the other is a word that may be translated as respect.
Past another cliff and some over hanging rocks with a ledge and a few offerings and another character. This can still be understood and just recently I was told that it says "thank you". I appreciate the thought.
On now to a large seat made from the wood from a giant tree. This tree was so large that the cross cut saw that cut it down had only an inch on either side to work with and so the process was very slow and difficult as the story was told to me by the old man who cut it down in his youth. Eventually the tree was felled and speared down below. We can’t help but dwell on human folly. The effort to cut the ancient forest, the effort to grow bananas on the steep slope, the effort to keep it free of weeds for grazing cattle, the lost battle due to the persistence of the invading weeds, the supreme battle to attack the weeds and plant a new forest while staggering over these giant logs and the effort to keep the weeds in check until the trees can stand alone. We sit on the seat and ponder! The rest has been edited out due to space reasons.