witness/ tree

AUDIO DESCRIPTION SCRIPT 

NEXUS ARTS  

“WITNESS/ TREE” 

Written by Elias Wilson
Spoken by Ptiika Owen-Shaw

INTRO 

This is an audio description for witness/ tree, a body of work by writer and artist Jennifer Eadie, and dance practitioner Adrianne Semmens, completed between 2023 and 2024. The work is comprised of a number of individual pieces, which are exhibited together to form the full work, in the gallery space at Nexus Arts, on Kaurna Country, Adelaide, South Australia. 

The Nexus gallery space measures six point seven metres deep and six point four metres wide, with white walls and a grey painted concrete floor, and a single white rectangular column at its centre.  

Pieces that comprise this work are displayed throughout the space, on its floor and walls, and suspended from the ceiling. Positioned in the centre of the room and visible from all angles, ten immense cut segments of the fallen blue gum dominate the space. In this audio description, the listener is taken through the space in a clockwise direction, beginning to the right of the entry doorway and continuing to its left. 

ENTRY 

A black soft curtain hangs from the ceiling and drapes over the doorway, pulled gently to the right side. Upon entry, the wall immediately to the right displays the following artist statement. 

witness/ tree 

Jennifer Eadie and Adrianne Semmens 

witness/ tree is the first iteration of a durational, site-responsive body of work by writer & artist, Jennifer Eadie and dance practisioner, Adrianne Semmens (Barkandji), that interrogates individual and collective relationship to place.  

The artists consider what it means to authentically bear witness to a recently fallen     [eucalyptus blue gum] whose age pre-dates invasion. In doing so, their work seeks to simultaneously honour, disrupt and (re)connect with, the histories and stories of Tuthangga, Kaurna Country [Park 17, Adelaide] 

The artists wish to acknowledge this work was created on and with unceded Kaurna Country.  

End of artist statement. 

To the left of this wall-text, a white plinth supports a black flat-screen television, which plays loops of two films, each approximately three minutes in length, titled Smoking Ceremony and Acts of Clearing.  

SMOKING CEREMONY 

Smoking Ceremony has no sound, and shows a senior Kaurna Man, Uncle Mickey O’Brien, performing a smoking over the cut segments of the fallen blue gum, in the presence of two women, Jennifer Eadie and Adrianne Semmens. Uncle Mickey wears a kangaroo pelt cloak over a black t shirt, blue jeans and red shoes, and wears on his brow a thick fur band from which a single black and orange feather extends upward. A single line of white ochre spans his face across his nose from ear to ear, and he carries a small, narrow shield, painted white with curving orange line detail, along with a bundle of eucalyptus fronds tied together. Uncle Mickey guides Jennifer and Adrianne to join him in placing their hands in ochre he has prepared in a coolamon resting on the fallen trunk. They each place their covered palms onto the tree’s bark, leaving their handprints in ochre.  

ACTS OF CLEARING 

The second film, Acts of Clearing, is accompanied by a soundscape of bird calls and an acoustic guitar piece called Kirra Ngalka by Nancy Bates (2023). It shows Jennifer and Adrianne kneeling by the trunk of the Waadlawarnka, clearing the grass and weeds from its base.  

To the left of the plinth and screen, a long piece of Belgian Linen hangs from the wall, affixed to it from its two top corners. The linen is bunched up slightly to the right, held together by a piece of black charcoal made from the blue gum tree, sewn into its fibres. Occupying the top-left corner of the linen, a charcoal rubbing (known as a frottage) illustrates the textures of one of the cut faces of the fallen blue-gum, and was created by placing the linen on the exposed wood, and rubbing it with charcoal, revealing its lines and chainsaw marks. A small pile of blue gum sticks are placed on the floor at the base of the Linen.  

A RECORD OF WHERE SHE FELL 

Turning back towards the left of the entry door, the heavy trunk segments of the tree at the centre of the room are visible against a backdrop formed by a large rectangle of cotton rag, which has been neatly affixed to the wall, and onto which three photographs have been printed, which together form, in the artists’ words, A record of where she fell. The right-most photograph depicts a parkland scene, with a path running down the centre of frame, onto which the fallen tree has collapsed. Remaining trees tower out of frame to the left and right of the fallen tree, and fill the horizon beyond. The remaining two photographs to the left depict the left and right halves of the same image, with the white border that divides each of the images splitting the scene in two. Below the photographs, a frond of blue gum leaves hangs over a short white platform.  

THE POEM 

Around the corner of the gallery space to the right of these photographs, an expansive white wall is peppered with lines of printed text, a Poem by Jennifer Eadie. The lines of the poem are spread wide over the wall, extending around another corner to the rear wall of the space. The poem text reads as follows: 

she – this waadlawarnka [fallen tree] – fell to the ground during winter  

storms earlier this year: it is not possible to know her exact  

age but there is consensus she was growing in this place pre- 

European settlement invasion:  

imagine how many bodies this ancestor tree has sheltered and in turn, 

how many songs have shaped her own gnarled body: 

standing here: you realize the lines on her are not marks: 

they are canyons: 

and all those scores are moving: you can feel that humming 

when you place your hand on her skin. 

— 

it has been said the city expels histories it does not want to face but  

here, the parklands surround the centre: the stories get caught: 

held and linger: there is push and pull between us: 

and maybe this is why: even as they worked [and still work] to re-shape 

this landscape, her fall was sovereign: 

she chose when and how: despite 

all that clearing and burning 

directed at cutting the energy of this country.  

— 

what did those men of the colony feel as they swayed and sweated: 

cutting down this forest and walking away from those fire they lit 

and the thing is, she would have witnessed all of it: 

all these hundreds of years: how much she has breathed in: 

breathed 

out: 

this dusty earth 

underneath us that 

once was red-black soil, 

filled with 

yam daisy, yacca, red parrot pea, lilac, flax lily, soft tussock mat-rush, 

pale fan-flower, and tutha [grasses]: dense and holding. 

and with all this in our hands: the question needs to become: 

how do we enact another form of clearing: one 

which carries intent to respect 

rather than an intent 

to conquer: 

— 

we need to slow down and focus our attention on listening: 

how did all those lines form on you: 

what is being exchanged in this yarning between us: 

none of this can be put into words: 

this place where we are standing is 

becoming 

simultaneous contact zone 

and space of mourning: 

and mourning is no walk over* 

it requires you give over: 

every part of your body 

must partake in it: 

to refuse this would be to frame her story as lost. 

*in our yarning sessions with Natalie Harkin, we considered the difference between melancholy and mourning – words that are often used interchangeably but are different: ‘melancholy is a sadness and stuck-ness that can dwell without a just remembrance [whereas] mourning is an active and conscious reckoning with loss – collective and ongoing – rupturing and deeply honouring.’ 

End of poem text. 

TEXTILE INSTALLATION #1 

Hanging from the ceiling on front of this poem’s walls are large square pieces of Belgian linen (brown), which have been pinned to the ceiling at two or three of their corners, and cast curved, pointed shapes with their drapes. Each piece of linen contains a unique charcoal frottage, and has stitched into its fabric the piece of charcoal used to make the rubbing. Ceiling lights have been positioned strategically to light up the linen and cast shadows from the central Waadlawarnka limbs onto the floor around them. 

TEXTILE INSTALLATION #2 

Alongside the poem text and occupying the majority of the rear wall of the space is a set of eight square and rectangular pieces of material (linen, cotton and muslin) of various sizes, pinned to the wall, each displaying a Frottage print made with blue gum charcoal. Each rubbing is unique, and the different sections of the wood rubbed and the natural qualities of the fabrics pick up different details and textures of the fallen tree, the black charcoal shifting in tone against warmer coloured linen and cooler cotton. The frottages are imprecise, with many pieces showing two or more overlapping rubbings, and all pieces containing smudges or charcoal marks left during the creation process. 

THE WAADLUWARNKA 

Returning to the tree itself, its enormous limbs are laid out in segments across the centre of the gallery floor, forming a gentle arc across the ground. Strips of bark have been lain across the wood, its tight, gnarled texture contrasting with the sturdy timber atop which they have been placed. Some of the blue gum limbs have been treated with timber-linseed-turmeric oils, which nourish and enhance the red tones of the blue gum where she was cut. At the base of some of the limbs, remaining gnarled bark twists and frames the limbs at their wounds. Light and shadow catches the Waadlawarnka from all sides of the gallery space.  

SEPARATE AUDIO: ACCOMPANYING TEXT 

The following is the full accompanying text that is placed at entry to the exhibition. 

witness/ tree 

Jennifer Eadie and Adrianne Semmens 

ABOUT 

witness/ tree is the first iteration of a durational, site-responsive body of work by writer & artist, Jennifer Eadie and dance practitioner, Adrianne Semmens (Barkandji), that interrogates individual and collective relationship to place. The artists consider what it means to authentically bear witness to a waadlawarnka [fallen tree] whose age pre-dates the invasion of Kaurna country. In doing so, their work seeks to simultaneously respect, disrupt, and (re)connect with, the histories and stories of Tuthangga (Park 17) Adelaide. 

STORY 

this installation should be understood as a part of a much larger story which is unfolding: for the time being, the trunk of this ancestor tree will remain where she fell in Tuthangga, and the limbs here in the gallery – until community decides what the next step is. Senior Kaurna Man, Uncle Mickey Kumatpi O’Brien shared an on-site smoking ceremony of the waadlawarnka [fallen tree], as a first step in this process. 

WITNESSING 

when researching the place-based history of Tuthangga, it becomes evident that the colony directed a huge amount of its energy towards obsessive clearing, fencing and objectification of this country. this destruction of Kaurna land and home was carried out with the available tools of weapons, livestock, and fire:  

we recognize she witnessed this violence and now [unsteadily] we are attempting to create space for ourselves and the public to bear witness to her: 

for the first iteration of this project, we are using the gallery to create an installation that acknowledges her:  

fall 

body 

sound 

all of which carries our attempt to pay attention through an embodied response: the charcoal is made with-from her, as is our mark-making and words. 

witness/ tree 

Jennifer Eadie and Adrianne Semmens 

FLOOR PLAN 

Text  

Writing commission 

Jennifer Eadie (2023) 

Textile Installation 

Linen, charcoal made from blue gum, thread. 

Jennifer Eadie & Adrianne Semmens (2023) 

Film excerpts [loop] 

Single channel video, no sound  

Film production by Dave Laslett & Jennifer Eadie (2023) 

Creative direction by Jennifer Eadie & Adrianne Semmens (2023) 

Photograph  

Image on cotton rag 

Jennifer Eadie (2023) 

Soundscape  

Recorded at Tuthangga, Kaurna Country [Park 17, Adelaide] 

Adrianne Semmens (2023) 

KIRRA NGALKA  

Sound commission 

Nancy Bates (2023) 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  

We acknowledge that Kaurna is not our language, but we feel it is critical for it to be present in this place-responsive body of work – as a gesture of respect by us, to this unceded country. Where we have used Kaurna language, we sought advice and approval from Uncle Mickey Kumatpi O’Brien. We are immensely thankful for his guidance, knowledge, and ceremony – all of which guided this project and in turn became part of it.  

The artists would also like to acknowledge how thankful we are for the: advocacy of City of Adelaide Horticulture Team Leader, Matt Jorgensen, the creative contribution & mentoring by Land Based Artist, Dave Laslett, and mentoring by Narungga poet, artist and researcher, Natalie Harkin. 

This is the end of the audio description.