NORTHERN NSW artist Charlotte Haywood has been visiting Broken Hill regularly since March, working on her exhibition Same Time/Same Place (COEXISTENCE) which opened at the Broken Hill City Art Gallery last Friday night.
The exhibition explores the idea of a multi-species ephemeral opera set on Wilyakali and Barkandji country in the arid zone of the Far West, with core themes of dormancy, rain and abundance.
“We focused on these three main themes and the phenomena that happen out here specifically, and creating these choruses of colour and song around them,” Ms Haywood said.
“We wanted to work with different community groups, both human and non-human, and focused on this idea of coexistence in the arid zone.”
Ms Haywood collaborated with local artists and musicians including Aimee Volkofsky, Leroy Johson and CW Stoneking, along with the AACES girl group and an evolutionary biologist who assisted in facilitating a residency at Fowlers Gap.
“The evolutionary biologist published a study about zebra finches, and how the finches actually sing for social cohesion or community building, not necessarily a territorial mating display,” she said.
“So that was the birth idea for the zebra finches which you see in the exhibition. And then I became obsessed with this idea of dormancy and how frogs in the arid zone will live five to ten years underground, just waiting for the right conditions.”
The exhibition was also inspired by the town’s social history of unionism which played into the overarching concept of collective behaviour.
Ms Haywood said before coming to Broken Hill she felt a connection to the town as her father had featured in the Razorback film years ago and brought some of the local art back home.
“Sometimes a place sort of gets to you, you get a taste for the flavour of the people even before you’ve come,” she said.
She received the Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Open Cut Commission Grant last year, which assisted in funding her and musician Sue Simpson’s trips out to the Far West.
All the artworks were made using found objects from the local tip shop or op shops.
The opening at the gallery included an operatic musical performance by Sue Simpson and an orchestra.
“The music was a sort of sonic tapestry, we used field recordings and even worked via correspondence with the philharmonic choir,” she said.
“So it’s a pretty playful exhibition. We also wanted to recontextualise disciplines like opera that are often considered very upper echelon. We wanted it to be made for the people by the people, or for the land by the land, and for it to be participatory.”
Same Time/Same Place (COEXISTENCE) can be viewed until February at the Broken Hill City Art Gallery.
