KARAAF: A SHY LANDSCAPE

This exhibition challenges us to recognise the beauty and vulnerability of the Breamlea Karaaf Wetlands and the need to protect this unique and fragile place of biodiversity and indigenous culture significance.

The Karaaf has an outstanding beauty, but with limited accessibility, it is not easily seen or appreciated: it is a shy landscape.  Inspired by notions of the sublime, these images capture the beauty in its skies, waters, vegetation, creatures and landforms.

Resonant of the iconic Blue Marble photograph of Earth from space, the aerial images of the wetlands are presented as spheres, fractals of the larger globe. Each image offers the possibility of another, alien, world. Photographed from a helicopter at heights of up to 2500 feet, the images disconnect us from familiar landmarks, inviting us to abandon pre-conceived notions of landscape and natural beauty and enabling us to see beyond the known. From this height the mundane, slightly drab wetlands are transformed, Cinderella-like, and we see how tidal and creek water flows bring patterns in sand, vegetation and animal movement, creating a world of kaleidoscopic jewel colours and mythical creatures.

In these images, too, we are witness to the encroachment of human activity whether historical or current, intentional or accidental. Hence the images record a moment in time of a natural system in flux, reacting to forces beyond its boundaries, reminding us of the connectedness of all things, that all action must have an equal and opposite reaction. Our love of the coast and desire to  live on it have consequences which are not always or immediately seen.