Daphne Major, And It Is Here I Learnt to Float (2013-14)
Artist: Daphne Major
Work: And It Is Here I Learnt to Float (2013-14)
Location: Karratha, Western Australia
During her Pilbara residency, Daphne Major focused collaboratively with the City of Karratha in exploring the first person narrative and its connection within and towards the greater space of community. Producing a new large-scale film work, And It Is Here I Learnt to Float, Major drew on oral histories and testimonies held in the Oral Histories Archive at the Karratha Community Library, an archive that registers the profound mark the landscape has on local residents. The narrative of Major’s film is a multi-layered representation of the community and an exploration of the impact of landscape on language. As well as giving voice to the community, the film follows Major’s own journey into the landscape through sailing, driving, flying, and hiking. And It Is Here I Learnt to Float, she has said, “speaks of the first of things: the first time learning to float, the first time experiencing landscape, and the first time seeing the largeness of the sky”.
