Congratulations to curator Monica Markovina for bringing the magic of raining poetry to Australia. The Treelines exhibition inhabits Ward Lane in Mittagong and includes photographic works as well as poems by Mark Tredinnick, Lorne Johnson and Phillip Hall.
I loved the blustery wind and calm chatting that filled the laneway as people came together then moved through the space: reading, looking, contemplating.
Lorne helped me reconsider how others could see bushland through his cheekily titled ‘If Emily Bronte visited Budderoo Plateau today she would most enjoy’
If Emily Bronte visited Budderoo
Plateau today show would most enjoy
1 watching dawn-light spill across
overland swamps 1 listening keenly
to the rhapsodic shrill of emu-wrens
3 potoroo-spotting by sedge-mire edge
or 4 sitting behind the wheel of a burnt-out
V8 Commodore while politely sipping VB
Lorne Johnson reads to the crowd
The ephemeral nature of poetry that is best seen after rain in a communal space makes this an adventurous exhibition. It requires re-visiting. I hope to walk this way again soon, without the crowd and maybe a quiet coffee at the Shaggy Cow.
Lorne also read ‘Pigeon House’ from his Morton anthology, and I heard again this intriguing line about a lizard resting in the sun
dreaming of a life without cold blood
admiring the work of Paul Harmon
The shadows and reflected sun added intersections and depth to Phillip Hall’s ‘Red Gold’. Different vantage points – standing on a bench, in the shade, sideways – invited different readings.
Red Gold by Phillip Hall
How might this space appear in early morning light?
Mim Stirling's trees at night
Find out more, and keep up to date with the space at WardLaneArt
Read the Southern Highlands News article ‘Invisible poetry waits’