Circular Economies Residency: Linda Tegg in Carnarvon #1

Apr 9

Linda Tegg is currently working with the community of Gwoonwardu/Carnarvon, hosted by Shire of Carnarvon. This residency is part of SPACED’s current regional residency program, SPACED 5: Circular Economies.

Tegg shares her experiences of the area during the first part of her residency via the following reflection.

I was listening to a motivational talk on imposter syndrome; our speaker was explaining to a group of local business owners at an International Women’s Day event that if we like someone, it’s because they reflect something about ourselves that we like and conversely, if we didn’t like someone it’s because they reflect something about ourselves which we didn’t like.

I must have felt good about myself at that moment because I liked everyone I met. The whole scene was lovely, fifty women dressed up at the Carnarvon Yacht Club, names getting ticked off the list on arrival, beautiful pale pink dried grassy floral arrangements bursting/flowing out of disco balls like some flamboyant tropical cocktail, ice buckets awaiting whichever bottle of wine you care to bring from the bar to the table and a celebration of local women in business.

…

I was working on a vision board at the Community Hub. We were a group looking to access our core motivations for volunteering in the community. We were led through a visualisation exercise remembering ourselves at different times in our lives; this morning, last week, last month, this time last year, as a young adult, as a child. I could pinpoint feelings and encounters at all stages except the previous week, that felt like a blur. I noticed how things that seemed to have discontinued in my life, friends, jobs, schools, and environments were easier to access than those that continued.

We made a pact to keep our conversations and revelations confidential.

…

I was scheduled to give an artist talk but had the feeling that people really wanted a workshop. Something to do with their hands. In a moment of inspiration, I walked around the town with my camera, photographing every imported mineral surface that caught my attention, the pavement on Robinson Street, the church wall, the painted stonework of the surf shop, the brick patterning of Carnarvon Central, the moulded concrete of the Telstra access point. I made 25 black and white prints; the next morning, walking through the carpark, I was amazed at a pattern of concrete punctuated by circular asphalt deposits, as if something had chipped away at it and asphalt had come to smooth things out again. My marvelling was interrupted by a man checking his PO Box asking me if I had lost something.

I was grateful to all who joined me that night. There was a movie on and a sound bath that many had been drawn to. I presented the prints - the textures and patterns within 50 meters of the Community hub. We scrunched them, tore and folded them into rocklike shapes while I spoke about my work, and then we threw them together, another conglomerate.

…

I bogged the corolla in a drift of ribbon weed. It had come to shore on the tide from a seagrass meadow a couple of hundred meters from where I was stuck. One of the largest on earth, the Wooramel seagrass bank covers a thousand and thirty-two kilometres, stretching up from Shark Bay towards Carnarvon. It supports a complex food web from worms to starfish, dugongs, and turtles. The ribbon weed functions as an attachment point for many plants and animals. In my situation, the weed decomposing on the shore wouldn’t let me go. My remarkable hosts Traditional Owner Yinggarda man Raymond Edney and Noongar woman Naomi McMahon led the recovery of my small car with total competence. They located a towing point concealed in the bumper that I had never seen before, we all dug out the seagrass, laid down some saltbush for traction while Naomi towed, and the rest of us, including a seven-year-old, pushed. 

…

One day shy of her eighty-fifth birthday, Noongar Elder Esma McMahon joined us at the insistence of her daughter Naomi on that thirty-six-degree day. She now coached me to fish. All day, I stay near her, as she comments on each attempt, each cast, each bite, and each attempt at reeling in. She sits there, patiently rethreading the bait, till there is no bait left, and us novices in the group have started to get the hang of if it, pulling in the yellow tail, flathead and mullet. Raymond cooks the fish on the fire, and we eat them right off the coals; they carry the taste of ocean and smoke. The leftover bones and skin are placed over the buried fire for the old people, as an offering.

…

Driving through the saltbush, occasionally we come across a patch of bare earth. For a hundred or so meters, grasses, shrubs, and trees are absent, and the land erodes. Cattle cause this destruction through their gazing and hard footfalls.

Driving back amongst the shrubs and undergrowth, Raymond tells us that it will soon be time to collect Emu eggs here; this timing is signalled by the posture of the emu that stretches out through the Milky Way.

…

On our way back to town, Raymond pointed out Boundary Road and asked if I knew why it had that name. He explained that, for a time, this was the boundary through which First Nations People were not permitted to pass. Many towns across Australia once had these exclusion zones marked by a road named Boundary.

Boundary Road to Carnarvon Central 3.36km as the crow Flys. It’s marked by four signs, and an iconic big banana is on the corner.

In the 1967 referendum, 90.77% of Australians voted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to have the same rights under the constitution as other Australians, including moving and owning property wherever they choose.

…

Driving in and around Carnarvon, you occasionally look up and see The Dish. Installed on the only hill in the area and standing 30 meters high, the radio telescope seems to appear out of nowhere. On the horizon, then suddenly up close. The surrounding roads and landscape alternatively conceal and reveal it in such a way that it’s always astonishing.

Created and run by volunteers, the Space and Technology Museum runs a compelling line between space exploration and the intimacy of place. I learn of the great space race and the OTS Earth Station’s role in the Apollo missions amongst decommissioned hardware, manuals, newspaper clippings, and personal ephemera. There is a tender beauty to many of the displays. A cat called Buzz stretches across the counter and has a line of t-shirts in his honour.

…

Images courtesy of the artist in order: Floral arrangement in portrait mode. Telecom. Mullet on the coals at Bush Bay. Mullet flesh. Play equipment and memorabilia at the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum.

More information about the Circular Economies artists, host communities and projects as they unfold can be found by subscribing to SPACED’s monthly email newsletter, and following SPACED on Facebook and Instagram.

Learn more about Linda Tegg.

Circular Economies is produced as a joint partnership by PICA - Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and SPACED.