“Heathen, N. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something he can see and feel”.

                                                                        -Ambrose Pierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906

 

Lovely Creatures is a group exhibition that will explore the relationship between the senses, story and contemporary myth creation. It will invite both artists and viewers to consider the forests of Western Australia as an imaginarium; place of sacred reverie and as site for the Australian Gothic.

​

“An imaginarium is a place devoted to the imagination. There are various types of imaginaria, centres largely devoted to stimulating and cultivating the imagination, towards scientific, artistic, commercial, recreational, or spiritual ends”

​

The theme for this project was inspired by the panther and Thylacine urban legends of the South West and Great Southern Region (Wadandi Boodja, Pibelmun/Bibulmun Boodja and Menang Boodja).

​

Submissions are welcomed from any artist living in Western Australia who has a personal connection to forested environments, either in Australia or overseas.This includes, but is not limited to, artists who have moved away from an urban, arid or coastal environment to a forested area or those who have lived or grown-up amongst the forest, but then moved away, Indigenous artists and/or migrant artists.

We especially encourage emerging artists and artists who have not previously exhibited with the Painted Tree Gallery to apply.

​

BACKGROUND

​

Throughout the world, innumerable lives, both human and non-human, are inextricably linked to forests. The forests of South West WA alone support up-to 150,000 species and globally, many people and cultures have relied upon – or still rely upon – forested environments for food and resources, as a place of devotional sanctuary, or as anchor point for myth and story.

​

In contemporary non-indigenous Australia- appreciation for, and kinship with forests is a somewhat recent phenomena. Enlightenment thinking, a colonialist heirloom, has encouraged us to view nature “as a force to be controlled” and to reject reverence for nature in the name of scientific thought. Whilst philosophers of the time espoused the value of a life lived close to nature, it was and is still mostly regarded as a secular practice.

​

Comparatively, Australian First Nation peoples regard humans and native environment as being in partnership. For example, Dr Noel Nannup states that “Noongyar connection with nature and Boodja (country) signifies a close relationship with spiritual beings associated with the land”. 

​

Further afield, cultural practices have enshrined forests as revered, and spiritually restorative places. For example:

​

• In the Amhara province of Ethiopia, local communities have protected native forests that encircle Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Churches for hundreds of years because they consider them “miniature Garden of Edens” that prompt them to “look beyond what is visible”.

​

• Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka and Thailand pursue ancient Theravada “forest traditions”, Kammaṭṭhāna (from Pali;, meaning “place of work”) where they seek-out and live within forests to aid in meditation.

 

• In Japan, Korea and China, Shinrin-yoku (forest-bathing) is an informal practice that was popularised in the 1980’s but has been practised for decades. Equivalent forest-bathing practices have also been established in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. 

 

Many cultures also have beliefs about the forest. For example:

​

• Māori (NZ) folklore describes Tāne, God of the forest (Tāne-mahuta), using the forest’s trees to separate earth from sky to bring light into the world. 

 

• The legendary Himavanta (Thai)/ Himmaphan (Burmese) Forest is central to many Hindu and Buddhist cosmological beliefs in the region. 

 

• In Japan, the Aokigahara Forest is believed by many to be populated by Yūrei, human spirits who have been denied a peaceful afterlife. 

CURATORIAL BRIEF

​

As well as being a place of deep reverence and restoration, the forest is also a place that inspires through sensory provocation- what we feel, touch, see, smell, hear or breathe.

 

We see things that aren’t there, hear voices on the wind or are overcome with feelings that we aren’t alone. 

​

To explain this phenomena and to contextualise our place within the forest, and places like it, we weave stories- stories that could be considered outlandish or marvellous, foreboding or scary.

​

Looking into a dense, unwalkable, shadowy forest can constellate our senses to inspire stories of non-benevolent beings. We believe there must be something in there; how could there not be?

​

Lovely Creatures invites artists to participate in this myth creation process by making artwork that draws upon personal and sensory experiences of the forest, by drawing upon the thematic prompts in this document and/or by reflecting upon the sensory roots of forest mythologies and story.

They are also invited to draw upon their own personal mythologies connected to the forest.

​

Artists are also particularly encouraged to consider how and why human beings sometimes centre themselves in myths about the forest:

For example, why are forest beings often described as human-like? And/or why are many creatures of folklore described as dangerous, cannibalistic or hostile to people? For example:

​

• Balyit/Mummarri (Noongar) and Tata Duende (Mayan & Mestizo) are both described as small malicious hairy little men that kidnap children who misbehave. 

 

• The Huldra/ Ulda (Sámi) (Scandinavia): a beautiful, woman-like creature with either an animal’s tail or a back shaped like a tree hollow. 

 

• The Curupira (Brazil) & Bigfoot (USA): Hairy, humanoid creatures that are hostile to forest interlopers, especially hunters.

Also to consider: How/why myth-creation occurs in context to human action. For example:

​

• The ‘panthers’ (see readings) ,often ‘spotted’ throughout Australia, were apparently released into the bush by travelling circuses or American military servicemen 60-80 years ago. Populations supposedly survive until present day despite the average lifespan of a panther being 12-17 years.

 

• The last known Thylacine died in a Hobart Zoo in 1936 and its mainland relatives died-out around 3,200 years ago. The animal was officially declared extinct in 1986 due to hunting, introduced diseases and habitat destruction. However, many people insist that, despite these human-driven efforts, the tigers’ existence persists both in Tasmania and Nannup and sightings are frequently reported.

 

• Artists are also invited to consider, and reflect upon, the beliefs and practices outlined in the Background section of the document, and consider how these beliefs may or may-not intersect with myth creation as described above.

​

THEMATIC PROMPTS

​

Artists may choose to engage with the brief instinctively, and interpret it through their own practice, and/or use one, some or all of the following prompts as guidance:

​

1.     Forest as imaginarium: a form, movement, symbol, etc. that is a portrayal of the manifestation of your sensory experience within the forest. That portrayal could be an invented ‘lovely creature’, and/or a depiction of an invented myth (invented by you, the artist). Artists are particularly encouraged to explore the phenomena of seeing, hearing or sensing things that aren’t ‘there’.

​

2.     Forest as sensorium: an expression of the artists’ sensory experience of being in the forest and/or visually depict symbiosis with this experience. Specifically, the gently visceral, formative, curious or uneasy feelings. 

​

3.     Forest as sacred space: Artists are invited to reflect on what it means to consider the forest as a place of reverence.

​

4. Forest as a conduit for myth creation: Artists are invited to reflect on the forest as a source of story, mythology and shared history. 

They are particularly invited to incorporate visual allegory, metaphors and symbolism.

​

Artists are also welcome to extrapolate on their personal experiences of myth invention or storytelling and the forest. For example- works referring to telling their own children about imaginary forest monsters, or growing up hearing ‘tall tales’ from someone in their family or community.

​

​

Curatorship supported by mentor Fiona Sinclair (SFA Creative Director), Southern Forest Arts’ Mycellium Project & the Creative Grid.