By Tyler Wright
When 25,000 trees were lost in the June 2021 storm, Yarra Ranges residents shared collective grief for the loss of their surrounding landscape.
In an effort to help the community heal after the devastating event, artists Bronwyn Ward and Kerri Hollingsworth teamed up to create a fibre sculpture led by creative recovery and trauma informed practice.
The subsequent exhibiton, ‘Spaces In Between,’ is now available for public viewing at Burrinja Cultural Centre’s art gallery.
The fibre sculptures; woven, latch hooked and wound into sculptures are installed in the gallery and are designed to hold and protect the memory of the trees lost.
“The biggest ones are about two and a half metres long, and there’s just literally hundreds and hundreds of hours work in each one; creating these sculptures out of recycled textiles and beautiful wools,” Bronwyn said.
“When they were finished, we took them into the forest at Monbulk, and we wrapped them around the living trees, and we photographed them… what that represented for us was the story of hope, and that although we are honouring the loss of these 25,000 trees, that actually having those images of the living forest is really trying to tell the story [that] we still have trees left [and] we need to really look after [them].”
Community engagement is also at the heart of the work, with a community weave made by the community of Mount Evelyn incorporated into the display.
“It felt really important to give voice to the community [in Mount Evelyn]”, and then it felt really powerful to take that story up to Upwey, to Burrinja,” Bronwyn said.
“[To] have that room and that work that was created down the bottom of the hill here and be taking that up to make sure that this community in particular were also represented in the larger story of the storm impact.
We need to be working together to mitigate the risks of climate change, and the impacts of climate change for our community so that we can protect what’s left in the forest now.”
What’s missing from the exhibition is almost what says it all.
“You really get this sense from [the structures] that the only thing that’s not there is the trees,” Bronwyn said.
“I’m hoping people will take the time to walk around them, look at all the intricacy that we’ve put into these these pieces, and perhaps take some time to reflect on their own lived experiences that storm or their own lived experiences of different traumas or impacts as well,” Bronwyn said.
“It’s a really essential part of how a community processes what’s happened and make sense of what their experiences are, and finds new ways to not just to recover, but to also redefine who they are as a community and help with the development of that sense of community identity, so they’re not defined by that disaster, but they’re able to move through that that process to be better prepared and stronger.”
For fibre artist Kerri, it was her first time working in community recovery.
“It was quite a deeply emotional meaning in different ways, but it was very intriguing and very eye opening working in creative recovery,” Kerri said.
“We worked on the concept a little bit and it’s actually something that really organically grew as we started working on the actual structures [which] came to life and was great.”
Bronwyn said it’s art that rebuilds hearts and souls after disasters.
“It’s art that is that facilitator for unpacking trauma,for sharing our stories and for not just recovering, but also building better resilience,” she said.
“[Viewers] don’t have to tell their story, but just know that what happened to them is still really relevant and that they feel really seen and heard by the work that we’ve tried to produce.”
The community weave session was funded by a grant Yarra Ranges Council’s Art Attack program.
‘Spaces In Between’ will be open for public viewing until Tuesday 30 August.
Burrinja Cultural Centre is located on Wurundjeri Country, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey VIC 3158.
