Each year, for the past 15 years, staff, students and affiliated artists from the Textiles Department, School of Visual Arts (SoVA) at Edith Cowan University have gathered at the time approaching the spring equinox for what has become known as ‘The Textiles Camp’.
Sunrise over Lake Baladjie from atop Baladjie Rock
The first camp, in 1987, was organised by textiles artists Nalda Searles and Elsje van Keppel (King) in order to give training textiles artists a ‘bush studio’ experience that would extend skills acquired in the classroom. There has always been an emphasis on students sourcing materials from the environment and interacting with practicing artists who visit the campsite. It is estimated that over 300 students have participated in these camps since their inception.
In September 2002, students and staff gather in the dawn light for the sixteenth Textiles Camp. The destination is Baladjie Rock Nature Reserve in the West Australian wheat belt, five hours drive to the east of Perth. Its most obvious landmark is a twin set of granite boulders that rise to 374 metres above sea level. Lying more subtly in the landscape is a salt lake of the same name that covers approximately fifty square kilometres. The nearest towns are Mukinbudin and Bullfinch (population 51). The nearest large town is Southern Cross, which is a further hour’s drive to the east.
Day one begins in the university grounds where an 18-seater mini bus waits to be loaded with 10 students (another twelve students travel independently), their camping gears, food and art supplies for the 8-day excursion. There is also is a three x two metre, covered trailer, which carries the heavier items, like eskys and, especially, water.
Baladjie has no water supply, no toilets, no electricity and, to the distress of at least one student, no access to mobile phones. The water supply problem is solved through the generosity of a local farmer who offers free rainwater from his 200,000 litre water tanks. This is exceedingly generous considering the drought that is gripping most of Western Australia. The farmer also supplies us with wood, including long-burning mallee roots. The toiletting issue is resolved with daily gusto and a spade.
The journey proper finally begins at 8:15am. There are stops at Meckering (the earthquake centre of Western Australia) and at Merriden where fuel tanks are filled for the final leg of the trip. Merriden also marks the last ‘civilized’ contact for a week, so there is a scramble for last minute luxuries that cannot be purchased at Baladjie. (Chocolate is high on shopping lists.)
Arriving at the Baladjie campsite in the early afternoon, and despite being only five kilometres from a sealed road, the campsite has an air of complete isolation. It is as if the granite boulder, which lies monumental between the camp and the road, is a barrier to civilization. Students talk of the city, trying to assimilate the landscape into their psyches, while they pitch the tents that will be their homes for a week.
The first night at camp is spent talking about both the city and the area around the campfire. One of the regular first night activities is to sit around the fire with a small piece of clay. The idea is to contemplate the past, present and week ahead and, with eyes closed, manipulate the clay into a form from your thinking. These objects will be pit fired at the end of the camp.
During the night-time discussions it is emphasized that the main purposes of the camp are to wake up, make art, eat when hungry, make art and to go to sleep.
Day two begins early. The sun has yet to rise and a cacophony of birds (parrots, crows and robins) heralds the new day and the rested travelers. The embers of the previous night’s fire need to be rekindled, breakfasts of toast and cereal made and there is a meeting organise today’s and the week’s activities.
Within a few minutes of this meeting beginning there is a rush for tents as a shower of rain sweeps across the countryside. The meeting is transferred to the mini bus and it is agreed that the first two days at Baladjie will be spent gathering plants and preparing them for dyeing. It is also decided that the mornings will be for workshops and the afternoon be used to further develop techniques, or for the students to explore the landscape.
When the meeting is finished, large pots and drums are filled with water and placed on the fire. This year the brews will be made with both dried and fresh leaves of the quandong tree (a literal windfall from recent heavy winds), dry leaves from mallee trees and a fungus called puffballs. The process of extracting dye takes at least two hours of boiling. During this time there is talk of various methods of resist dyeing and how results can be achieved without PVC pipe and machined pieces of wood from the city. Most students brought a supply of cotton and silk fabrics. The results from the latter usually convince students that they will save money for next years camps because protein fibres (silk, wool etc.) take the bush dyes much more readily the cellulose fibres (cotton, linen etc.).
Marrissa Dyer (first year) vegetable dyed silks; each 250 x 115 cm
This second day, Sunday, is a day for binding and boiling fabrics with plant materials that produce colours from dark golden browns (puff balls) to soft greens (fresh quandong leaves) using potassium alum as the mordant to set the dyes.
It is also a day for acclimatizing to the environment. Waking before dawn gives the rock a new perspective. The early light softens the rock face, which slowly becomes harsher as the light strengthens.
An afternoon walk north to the salt lake shows how far
the ‘tide’ has receded over the last ten years.
This is further evidence of the wheat belt drought. Ten
years ago, the last time the textiles camp was at Baladjie,
the huge salt lakes contained six to seven centimetres of
saline water. This year the lake surface is a crust of salt.
Moisture appears after walking fifteen metres towards the
centre of the lake where water starts to ooze to the surface
with the pressure of each footstep. (This morning’s
rain has left only a few small puddles on the rock’s
summit and no evidence at all in the salt lake.)
Today’s sunset bestows the clouds with magentas, oranges
and reds (a red sky at night?).
The pre-dawn light of the third day reveals a crusting of white on most horizontal surfaces. What could easily be mistaken for a dusting from the salt lake is in fact a light frost. One student with an Australian Geographic thermometer puts the air temperature at minus five degrees.
The students are feeling more confident about dyeing processes when the pots go back on the fire. Conversations revolve around the suitability of local plants for dyeing. One of the SoVA staff found two dead quandong trees and returned to camp with bags filled with bark. The expectation is that the bark will produce a deep red brown.
Day four’s morning activity is to construct coiled structures from locally collected plants. Initial attempts begin with spirals of grasses stitched with linen thread. The work place discussion evolves to notions of human forms and dolls and it is decided that this will be the aim of the day’s activities.
Claire Bushby (third year) coiled vegetation with linen thread; 16cm diameter
Day four is also the day when city routines decline. Breakfast
and lunch are now prepared rather than cooked and the evening
meals are more simple because perishable foods, such as
meats, that were frozen before the camp, have thawed and
been consumed. More empty cans are appearing, as are pasta
and rice packets.
Day five’s activity is drawing. The group set off
into the landscape armed only with paper and India ink.
The idea is to use drawing implements found on site, which
includes sticks, branches, leaves and rocks. By mid morning
the heat in the scrub country forces us back to the shade
of the salmon gums near the campsite. Here dye pots are
still simmering and the morning’s drawing implements
are plunged into the vegetation-derived colours and the
drawings continue.
Marrissa Dyer (first year) drawing with India ink, plant dyes and dirt on paper; 70 x 95 cm; installation view.
On day six, the notions of applique, reverse applique and hand stitch are explored. The idea is that these techniques can be seen metaphorically as a process of damaging and healing. Over the millennia, Baladjie Rock has faced extremes of temperature. The expansion and contraction of the rock has caused slabs of the rock surface to break free. The colour where these pieces have been is lighter. Students were asked to consider these processes while they cut their dyed fabrics and patched them and stitched them back together.
Vanessa Wallace (second year) silk and cotton fabrics, cotton thread, applique, reverse applique and hand stitch; work in progress.
The seventh day is one for consolidation. Students are
asked to consider the week’s activities and to spend
the morning making art with memories and maps in mind.
The afternoon is the time to see the results of the week’s
efforts. Students spend an hour organising their objects
and images into small bushland installations and, as a group,
we perambulate the areas near the campsite and critique
each other’s work.
Nicolle Hastings (third year) Camp Map cotton cloth and thread, wool thread, dirt and burn marks (detail)
The final day is really only a morning. A time to pack tents, clothing and art works and get organised for the return journey. Conversations revolve around families and memories and friends that were made at Baladjie Rock. Thinking about a sense of place starts to swing back towards the city; five hours drive to the west.
