Messages from trees – Ancestor-mind

Lunar phase over Sydney: Between first quarter (2 February 12:41 pm) and full moon (9 February 6:33 pm)

I receive this message from Paul Fletcher:

Mobile Dimensions- Amulet Mobile- Messages from Trees. Ancestor mind….

A short excerpt in a series of tiny animations created from plants..in this case selected, shaped and or decorated slices of tree branches, suspended on wire and cotton-animated by breath, wind and digital layering and composition. Music by Ed Mundio

I see the motion of the mobile amulets , bouncing and floating in currents of air, ocean and time. They are directly reflective of strong connection to the natural world we are part of in their origin of seeds, water, sunlight and growth of timber. The markings on the wood are my own intuitive/ancestor mind responses to the patterns found in the slices of tree wood ; the ‘messages from trees’. I planted these trees in Djadja Wurrung /central Victoria lands as small seedlings approximately ten years ago. This project brings together my interests, training and experiences in horticulture, organic gardening, permaculture and the audio visual kinetic and musical artform of animation. Finally the mobiles naturally rely on balance as we all do!

I respond,

I trust the spirit connection that comes from making in these dreaming states of mind. Just before your words arrived by Email this morning, I read, in Riding the Black Crow’ by John Danalis (2009, p. 70):

“…I could only agree. After the call [from Dja Dja Wurrung and Wamba Wamba Elder, Gary Murray] I closed my eyes and for a moment I
could feel those big wheels turning like constellations, unstoppable in their tidal force. Since deciding to return Mary [a skull found by
Danalis’s father], doors had been flying open efore me. Something was going on, ‘it’ was all around me, but if I looked it vanished.”

Have a great Thursday in Melbourne.

The book I am reading is a gift from the etymologist Renee LeFevre Dowes. She writes, “…I hope you enjoy this story of reconciliation as much as I did.”

I draw as Paul and I imagine a Seeding Treaties installation in the Octagon exhibition space at the Victorian College of the Arts, and how we might stimulate and gather responses from people who interact with it.

The installation will incorporate the Living Data Library in a suitcase,
inspired by the 2001 project, Roget’s Circular.
Posted on Thursday, February 6th, 2020