2018 AIR 1

Lucille Martin will explore portraiture in the surrounding landscape and waterways of Bundanon. Themes of stewardship, home, place and governance of nature and deep ecology come to mind. Within days of arriving at the Artists homestead,  Bundanon curator and project manager Julie Ryan introduced  Martin to Wodi Wodi Elders, Yuin people of  New South Wales, a sub-group of the Dharawal nation who shared knowledge  about cultural fire practice.

Martin particularly wanted to research a more performative expression of  iPhonecapture by walking the land and photographing landscape using ‘documentary observational methodology’. This type of practice has allowed for a more performative process of engagement for Martin which was first integrated into her practice in 1984-86, when she was travelling in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Israel, during periods of internal conflict.

2019 AIR II

Prior to becoming interested in the land around Bundanon and Riversdale, Martin had lived on 36 Acres of land for 18 years in Northern New South Wales while bringing up her daughter and caring for her aged parents. Many of her friends owned land in the region and were implementing land management plans to regenerate once depleted land used for grazing stock or logging.

Martin had also been introduced to theory of Edward O. Wilson and his acclaimed book ‘The Biophilia Hypothesis ‘. Wilson proposed the eponymous term, Biophilia, which literally means “love of life,” to label what he defined as humans’ innate tendency to focus on living things, as opposed to the inanimate’.

2021

In May 2021 Lucille returned to Bundanon to document the same locations where the Cultural Burn took place in 2018. This was of considerable significance considering Bundanon and Riversdale had been on high alert during the 2019-20 catastrophic fires.   Contact Lucille to hear of when the exhibition relating to this topic opens in Perth.