Installation produced as part of the annual Tarkine In Motion event by the Bob Brown Foundation.
This artwork was installed in a logging coup in the Tarkine near Rapid River, North West Tasmania, a few days after the forest was “clear felled”, completely smashed.
The loggers only remove a small amount of the timber, about 20%. Most of this timber is wood-chipped to make paper. The industry makes a massive financial loss, subsidized by the state.
Charges are placed around the perimeter of the coup and then napalm is dropped from a helicopter, burning all the life from the deep mud. Mono-culture tree farms are planted in their place, likely to burn from bush fire.
When the senseless logging ceases, the chainsaw becomes a benign artifact, no longer a weapon of ecocide or a symbol of the stupidity of man and his systems.
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“An installation in rain/wet forest coupe RD_16B. Constructed over 2 days, helped by some of the Rapid River vollies and myself. The ‘petals’ were tied onto this neon flower amidst frigid rain squalls at sunrise on Easter Monday. Ankle deep in the blood of the trees, the ceremony of returning colour to this viciously defiled space of beauty and life wasn’t cathartic, but it resonated deeply as doing ‘something’ ” Dan Broun