During her residency, Elizabeth Pedler recorded interviews with community members, capturing documentation of plants, landscapes, and land management practices. The participants included farmers, Noongar elders, biologists, and local artists, who focused on the changing landscape, endemic and introduced species, and water ecologies, shaped by geographical and human factors. In doing so, she explored the everyday lives and interests of people whose way of life was very different to her own. Navigating different life experiences and perspectives on farming, animal husbandry, climate, and food, Pedler discussed with locals their perspectives on how they relate to the land on which they live, working to understand, as an outsider to the community, how the distances between them were formed and what can be learned from different perspectives.
Elizabeth Pedler and Juno in Wellstead. Photo by Richard Davy.
Elizabeth Pedler in Wellstead. Photo by Kerry Dell’Agostino.
Amongst the stories are field recordings by Josten Myburgh and the voices of Juno and Esmae, two girls who were born into the project — Juno to Pedler and her husband Andrew and Esmae to local hosts Kerry and Richard. Bringing together human stories, site recordings, video of plant life, and sculpture of the two children with clay partially sourced from Richard and Kerry’s dam, the artwork shares the stories written across the landscape of Wellstead and looks to the shifting future — of climate, community and landscape — these two girls may yet see.
Elizabeth Pedler, Nature or Nurture, 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Elizabeth Pedler, No one is an island, installation view, 2020. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Presented alongside Pedler’s installation is a selection of engravings by Joseph Banks, chosen by members of the Wellstead community who selected the flora they recognised growing in their area, entwined with the daily lives of the community. The scientific and detail-oriented recreations of each plant species is juxtaposed with the varied stories of agriculture, conservation, revegetation, and regenerative initiatives from interviews with community members, occasionally overlapping with the sounds of children chattering or crying, to present a story of how the landscape is impacted by and impacts human stories. In this way, Pedler presents the story of Wellstead as a story that cannot be captured solely within a precise engraving, but a messy entangling of human and non-human lives with connections, interdependencies, and relationships with others.
Sydney Parkinson, Melaleuca angustifolia (from Banks' Florilegium Parts V & VI), 1772–1784, colour engraving on paper, The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Photo by Dan McCabe (@artdoc_au).
Elizabeth Pedler & Josten Myburgh, What is written upon a leaf, what is held within a seed, 2023, mixed media installation, Sydney Parkinson, Baeckea imbricata (Banksian name: Philadelphus imbricaus) (from Banks' Florilegium Parts V & VI), 1772–1784, colour engraving on paper, The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, purchased 1982, Darwinia fascicularis (from Banks' Florilegium Parts V & VI), 1772–1784, colour engraving on paper, The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, purchased 1982, Utricularia Caerulea (from Banks' Florilegium Parts XI & XII), 1772–1784, colour engraving on paper, The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australa, purchased 1983. The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2023. Photo by Dan McCabe (@artdoc_au).
