Misho + Associates

FINALIST

‘Breathe 42 16’12.00” S 145 49’12.00” E’

I have had the privilege of walking through one of the most beautiful cool temperate rainforests in the world. The rainforests of south-west Tasmania are vital for understanding global evolutionary processes and are one of the most complex, yet primal, vegetation formations on Earth.

At one particular site under Frenchman’s Cap, the forest canopy is framed by 2000 year old Huon pines and 600 year old myrtles and sassafras... but the ground plane is even more detailed and fascinating: carpets of glowing green mosses and bryophytes; brilliant orange, blue and purple fungi; lacy lichens and filigreed ferns; and draped and dripping epiphytes. I am inspired by Dr Bob Brown and the late photographer Peter Dombrovskis, both of whom deeply loved and fought for the Tasmanian forests. In these places I too am astonished, humbled and calmed. I want to lie down in the forested lee of the Cap, and be consumed by the moss and the silence.

The monolithic interior of the National Gallery of Australia (the backdrop for the proposed tapestry) could be imagined as the wall of Frenchman’s Cap. Yet in this work I am paying homage to the cool temperate rainforest floor. The human eye is a very sensitive organ, which can discern thousands of colours and patterns, yet it is particularly attracted to those that emulate natural forms. Subtle shifts of shading of the wool will evoke the textural depth of the moss. The organic colours of nature - shades of green, blue, orange, brown - are used here. And, like moss, the tapestry does not recognise man-made boundaries; instead it seeps over cracks and down the wall.

This work exemplifies biological mutualism; the inorganic gallery wall providing a protective environment for the organic forest floor tapestry.