A Topography for Reflection

A series of watery provocations…

Recomposed as a watery amphitheatre, Lake Weyba becomes both protagonist and platform for a series of performative exchanges, where interior and exterior landscapes merge. In this fluid setting artists Katie Harris-MacLeod and Bianca Tainsh converge inner explorations with Weyba phenomena, abstracting the edges between reality, myth and time, and surfacing as a manifest through art film.

In this multi-layered project the artists will subtly respond to Weyba’s natural and cultural timescape by creating a poetic dialogue through seven performances of ritual and score.  At the same time experimental, playful and spiritual, the artists will explore the relationship of human body and water body, by transcending into the material and spiritual landscape.  Transition, feminine response and a connection to nature will be influential themes, but Weyba will have final say, directing the mood through the elements – light, wind, rain.

With guises and props made from both organic and anthropic materials, the artists will abstract traditional tropes by creating enigmatic visual compositions.  Natural materials – plant, pigment, light – will work as a Weyba colour palette,accentuating the manifold aspects of the landscape that create the stage for our artists’ performances.  At the same time artificial materials allude to a contemporary disruption within this serene landscape.

A Topography for Reflection has an experiential focus. There is an aspect of the audience curating their own experience as they select the performances to attend. And, though customarily ephemeral, the performances will be captured through video, then post-festival, transformed into an art film Manifest as an evocative, though abstract documentation of Weyba. 

In the lead up to a series of performances over the duration of the Floating Land Festival 2021 in October, the artists will be carrying out explorative provocations.  After each provocation a documentary archive of images and reflective texts will be posted as blog entries.  Please click on the link below to view the blog…