I set up my routine for each day, which consisted of coffee, walking along the jetty, reading, drawing the beautiful dense tree-filled view outside the window and the plump lemons I plucked from a nearby tree, writing and walking. The days ended when I made a fire and prepared a (very) early dinner!
Some days I also scheduled phone calls to interstate artist friends with whom I hadn’t spoken to for ages. In addition, I engaged, albeit virtually, with artists/creatives and environmentalists across multiple locations including regional NSW, Chicago, Ireland and Sydney and Melbourne.
I also enjoyed reading the wonderful Mirror and the Palette, by Jennifer Higgie which, not surprisingly, triggered some quick, gestural self-portrait drawings! Time was also spent writing and planning ideas for future projects and I also had time to make some garlands with materials I had brought with me from home.
I took long walks locally, always looking for plastics. I found the odd plastic bits but pleasingly, and remarkably, fewer than I normally encounter on the beaches of the Eastern suburbs in Sydney.
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| Rox De Luca, North Arm Cove Pile Pink Bucket, 2021 |
However, in the North Arm Cove village it was Council-clean up time. Here in this ideal bush setting I was reminded of the serious global issue of waste, how we humans have an enormous capacity to accumulate materials, domestic and electrical, that so easily are made redundant for so many reasons. I am thinking of domestic products considered out of fashion, of poor-quality that have “broken”, products out-grown, such as bicycles, and stuff that simply hasn’t been used.
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| Rox De Luca, North Arm Cove Pile One, 2021 |
I felt compelled to these problematic piles, so I took a series of 37 photographs of the rubbish in front of the properties on Gunyah’s street. The piles were there upon my arrival and stayed throughout my residency. Miraculously, on the day of my departure, the piles had disappeared! (I must have slept through the collection truck’s rumblings). I was intrigued by the sameness of these rubbish piles, which included whitegoods, wooden furniture, bookshelves, huge plasma-tv screens, chairs, miscellaneous materials, bikes, toys and so on.
I imagined a research project (or smart App!) that could easily determine if the goods, destined for landfill, could instead be repaired, re-used, or up-cycled, or in a worst-case scenario, be disposed of much more thoughtfully than the inevitable filling up of a rubbish tip. Some items were made out of plastic, so of course I took the 2 bright orange triangle wedges and a crimson broken mop-bucket top-bit for re-use. But there were so many other items that appeared perfectly functional and useable.
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| Rox De Luca, North Arm Cove Pile Three, 2021 |
I imagined a research project (or smart App!) that could easily determine if the goods, destined for landfill, could instead be repaired, re-used, or up-cycled, or in a worst-case scenario, be disposed of much more thoughtfully than the inevitable filling up of a rubbish tip. Some items were made out of plastic, so of course I took the 2 bright orange triangle wedges and a crimson broken mop-bucket top-bit for re-use. But there were so many other items that appeared perfectly functional and useable.
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| Rox De Luca, North Arm Cove Pile Two, 2021 |
Further afield from Gunyah I found Jimmy’s beach, near Hawks Nest, which has a beautiful long deserted stretch of coastline. Here organic matter was abundant and this is where I found some of the usual plastics and rubbish, much like the usual stuff I find in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, the typical confectionery sticks (think Chupa Chups), plastic wrappers, bits from drink bottles and sadly, chunks of the ubiquitous polystyrene.
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| Rox De Luca, Jimmys Beach, 2021 |
Thank you Gunyah for your calming winter sensibility, for your gentle spirit, your birds and your towering healthy trees.
You gave me the quietude, the space and time to consider how much better we can live in the world.
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| Rox De Luca, From Jimmys Beach, 2021 |
Rox De Luca, Gunyah residecy report, June 2021
