BY MIRANDA ILCHEF
Trigger warning: This interview contains detailed discussion about death and dying.
On the first weekend in December, a unique and fascinating art project will take place in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
In Andrew Mottershead and Rebecca French’s Bushland, the audience will be placed at the centre of an immersive audio exploration into death, decomposition, and our relationship with the natural world.
Created in collaboration with anthropologists, ecologists, and conservators, Bushland explores decay and renewal both scientifically and spiritually.
Bushland is described on the Arts House website as an “audio experience”. What sort of sounds will the audience hear?
The audience wear headphones and lie down in the bush, and listen to a spoken narrative that details the physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur in the afterlife of the human body in the bush.
It is a list of interactions between the body and the bushland; of internal bodily processes; of milestones in the decomposition process. At the same time, it describes the influence of natural cycles that shift the body from one environment and state into another, over an epic timescale of thousands of years.
The narrative is delivered in a soft, measured, and meditative tone, and is written in highly visual terms that tap into the listener’s archive of familiar references and bodily sensations. This causes them to essentially ‘live through’ what is being described, as if it were their own body decomposing, with the effect amplified when the audio combines with the sounds of the environs permeating the earphones – the buzzing of flies, the trees on the breeze, the birds, etc. – and the physical stimuli from the bush.
The work will touch on these heavy topics of human death and composition. What inspired you and Rebecca to explore such significant topics?
We chose death and decomposition as the subject through of a combination of events, personal fear, and curiosity. A previous project called Understory included a workshop where the audience explored various aspects of decomposition during a camping weekend in a forest. This workshop culminated with a 5-minute meditation about the decomposition of the body into the woodland floor.
We liked how this spoke to people about their body, about the place, and about a stretch of time. Following this event, we chose to unpack this idea and make a bigger project.
Also, I share a fascination with those news stories of people dying alone and not being found for months, years, or ever. Culturally and individually, it’s a fascination borne of fear – that one day, that could be me.
Both of us are curious about science and the nature of things. We found, as we delved deeper into the story of decomposition, that is about transformation, renewal, change, which are superb devices for storytelling.
Once you came up with the idea for Bushland, how did you go about creating the entire artwork?
A couple of years ago, we started working with a science adviser – Dr Carolyn Rando, a forensic anthropologist based at University College London – to model likely scenarios for human decomposition in each context. She gave us a crash course in the different stages of decomposition. We explored the impact of temperature, moisture, animals, microbes, and other environmental factors; mining case studies, and observing experiments, where animal bodies were buried and exhumed for examination. This research shaped the writing process.
We wrote dozens of drafts, recorded them, and listened to them ourselves lying down in some woods near our house to […] experience them ourselves. We also collaborated with artist Alex Peckham to develop the Android app that we use to deliver the piece, again with a fair amount of user testing.
For Bushland, we needed the benefit of local experience, and through the eyes of local experts. We visited bushland and parks to feel how the piece might synchronise with these places – their ambient noise and physical stimuli. Some time with an Aboriginal guide imparted a sense of their people’s profound connection to land, and a working knowledge of the symbolism and usage of specific flora and fauna. We canvassed botanists and park rangers, and delighted in receiving their take on the ecosystems and annual cycle of native and non-native species in South East Australian Temperate Forest.
The final stage of creating the work is the event itself. Of getting it into the ear of the listener. Their experience completes the work.
As you’ve collaborated with ecologists and conservators, I’m guessing Bushland will deliver a message about the importance of environmental protection. How important is it that artists are socially engaged?
Yes, an overarching message would be that humans are only as relevant as the ecologies that surround us, and that we should feel compassion for our bodies and the environment.
Artworks have the ability to engage an audience in an experience that can create change. From our own experience, it is really important for us to create works that engage people in a situation where they can look at themselves, those around them, and their environments in a different way.
We often learn as we go, and what we learn is reflected in the piece. If you want your work to be more than decorative or a veneer over something, you’ve got to get out there and engage with ideas, people, and communities that are not necessarily you.
Experience the Arts House event Bushland by French and Mottershead at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria from 11am-5pm, December 1-2.
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Images supplied. Credit: Paul Blakemore.
