Research

Day 2 – Tuesday 20/3/12

Following our day-long train ride, we embarked on our first day of research. We went together to Bushy Whites Miners Memorial where we were able to learn about the unique way in which he made his artworks, by drawing the outlines of images before crushing and pasting on a variety minerals in order to make scenes that preserve the history of mining in Broken Hill. Kevin “Bushy” White was a miner for 26 years before he began creating these amazing artworks. What sparked his interest in this type of art making was when his wife received a postcard with samples of fake minerals attached on top.

Later in the afternoon we received a presentation from a police officer, Paul. He gave us a very interesting presentation on the simplicity of stalking people on Facebook and informed us about the general crimes of the area as well as the different situations he commonly deals with in his job. In terms of relevance to our project, we received some information about different natural disasters that occur in the area such as flooding and dust storms, which we later found were common subjects captured in artworks with some very interesting photographic scenes. He also told us about some common wildlife from the area including emus, kangaroos and the deadly taipan snake which we could also make reference to in our project.

During research time we had to rediscuss and rethink our initial ideas as we misinterpreted the task, thinking that it shared a great likeness to the group work in city experience, when really it included much more collaboration in the making of one final artefact.

We also received a talk from the historian Paul Armstrong. This was more relevant to the groups doing tall tales and truths, as we are not focusing at all on myths and legends.

Day 3 – Wednesday 21/3/12

Today, our whole groups went to the railway museum for our research. When we arrived, we first explored the trains. We entered in one side and passed through the carriages, kitchen and toilets. It was very dusty inside, which made it seem more like we were entering the past. After that, we explored the hospital museum, migrant museum and mineral museum. In the hospital museum, we learnt about the instruments used and there was even a section of real life teeth. The migrant section was the most interesting to us, because we never knew that Broken Hill was a multicultural society. What surprised us most was that after World War I, men from Europe decided to immigrate to Broken Hill to have a peaceful life. As a result, this helped Broken Hill flourish with multiculturalism. Now, Broken Hill is a city that has many pizza restaurants, Chinese restaurants, etc. We also found that the fashion was hugely influenced by the people that migrated there. The mineral museum was also interesting because all the minerals that could be located in Broken Hill could be viewed there. Even though we found this visit enjoyable, the information didn’t specifically prove useful to our project. Hopefully in the upcoming research days there will be more opportunity to visit a variety of galleries.

What was more useful was our trip to the silver city mint as there were a variety of artworks displayed there including those of Roxanne Minchin. Many of these depicted landscape scenes of rich colours that gave us some ideas on how we could portray the landscape we have observed so far.

In our period of free time some of us went for a short walk down the drive and found some great photographic opportunities for the task.

Another presentation we saw was based on Astronomy. We got some really interesting information about different components in space such as the sun, moon, stars, galaxies, comets and nebulas, although again, it did not have key relevance to our project.

Day 4 – Thursday 22/3/12

We travelled down to Menindee today and enjoyed a lovely river cruise. We received lots of geographical information regarding the Darling River as well as the surprising positive and negative nature of the flooding in the area. We probably benefited most as a group today from the photographs we were able to obtain of the natural environment. The recent flooding has been the largest since 1796 and the main fish is yellow belly. Some river gums are over a thousand years old and the river is made entirely of mud, there are no stones.

Positive effects include -
 * People suffered from mental illnesses because there was no rain, after the flood there was less suicide and depression as mental health improves
 * When flooded there is 90% less vandalism and crime with children
 * More wildlife in the area
 * More agriculture after the flood
 * More water for the town
 * Assists in getting the community together
 * Creates more jobs

During our research time we organised some possible interview questions for an artist:
 * What is your main subject matter that you like to focus on/What do you aim to express through your art?
 * How has being at broken hill influenced your art/art making?
 * What do you enjoy most about broken hill?
 * Why did you choose this medium?
 * What has inspired you?
 * Why did you come to broken hill?
 * How do you think your art has changed over time?
 * What do you think is most iconic about the broken hill environment?

Day 5 – Friday 23/3/12

During our research time our main aim was to get our wiki ready and up to date. Shortly after Tori and Maxine went to the regional art gallery, which was quite interesting because it showed many different ways that art from Broken Hill could be presented. In the first room there was a small exhibition of artworks (mainly lino prints) by Badger Bates who is an Aboriginal artist. The regional gallery is the only place in Broken Hill where aboriginal art is displayed. We found this surprising and it meant that we could not really focus on it in our final project, as there was not enough information available.

His lino prints were quite detailed and were pretty much all about the Australian landscape and animals (mainly emu’s and brolgas). They were all quite realistic. He also did sculptures made out of interesting items such as an echidna make out of a circular saw and bike chains and a spider from an old bed frame as well as wooden sculptures from old tree roots and the likes. Some of the wooden sculptures were quite abstract because he didn’t want to tamper with the wood that much. We really liked the echidna because it was realistic and innovative in the way that it was made and that it also connected the machinery aspect (mining) of Broken Hill with the natural environment (animals).

In the next room there was an exhibition of works by a group of women about “Our plastic lives and A Woman’s tale” that basically showed different perspectives about how plastic was affecting our lives that mainly related to women’s lives. This was interesting but didn’t really have much to do with our project so we just skimmed through most of it. However, it gave us many ideas about presentation like presenting our final product with a poem because all the artworks in the exhibition included one, which reinforced the key ideas/concepts presented in the artwork as well as adding new insight into the artists’ intentions. The artworks in this exhibition were presented in all sorts of mediums; i.e. paintings, pastels, chalk, sculpture and abstract things like an empty hanging photo frame.

Upstairs there were more paintings and a couple of sculptures. These paintings were (interestingly enough) mostly painted by artists originally from the UK and quite a lot of these were painted in a more “traditional” style and featured on the landscape of Australia. The paintings on the other side of the room were more contemporary and but also were about the landscape.

Even though there were no artists available to interview, we were fortunate enough to ask some questions to the education officer there about the artwork in the area. She said that most artworks were focusing on landscape and not as much about the industrial aspect of Broken Hill, which was a bit surprising after seeing how passionate Bushy White was about his previous career in mining. She said most people had a preconception of and artist being a painter so sculptures and other forms of art were less prominent. She also informed us that there wasn’t a specific style of painting that artists followed and they usually kept the style of painting that was “self-taught”. This encouraged diversity in the way things were presented.

After visiting the Regional art gallery we made our way to the Pro Hart gallery. It was a relatively small gallery but it held many of his works there including the famous Dragonfly painted on carpet. Pro Hart had a very distinct “self-taught” style of painting and had complex artworks with many layers of image and concept.

Pro Hart was a highly innovative artist who liked to experiment with many different methods of painting. One in particular that he employed was the “paint bauble” method. This gave us an idea on how social aspects affected art in that artists would employ different technology into their work. Basically, he would fill a Christmas bauble with paint and then shoot it onto a canvas with a small cannon that would make a lovely paint-splattering imprint on the canvas (which could be used to make the heads of flowers) and would also leave shards of the bauble that give the painting a 3D effect and add “shine” as well.

His people were less realistic looking but this (as well as the masks that some of the people wore) added more meaning to the painting through the less specific finer features not pinning down who the person was and creating a slight farcical effect. He also has a very large range of distinctive styles.

One of his larger works is a painted mural depicting a selection of important events since the arrival of the first fleet in 1788 with captions. This, along with many of his other works regarding Australian history (like Gallipoli and the judgement at Ayers rock), shows a strong connection to his culture. We thought that his artworks were really effective because they had so many layers.

In the meantime Christine and Sabrina visited the Bush & Beyond and Howard Steer galleries. When we first stepped inside the gallery, we were instantly attracted to the clay figurine on which had a painted scene of Australia on her. We then realised that Wendy Martin painted the scenery of Australia on a woman, because her sister had breast cancer, and this was to commemorate her and her love for the land.

Apparently, it was because she lived in the outback and it was so far away, that she didn’t have the best resources. There was also an artwork that reflected woman in the 1930s, under the name of “All Work and No Pay.” This artwork was based on Australian women during the depression and how the women did at that time was work all day. In this artwork, Wendy used corrugated iron to represent Broken Hill since most houses have corrugated iron on them. At the back, was a clothing line with clothes on them. These clothes have paintings on them that reflect what women did all day.

Wendy Martin’s husband, painted more scenery and he said that Broken Hill’s environment gave him ideas to what they should paint. For example, there were paintings of the floods, dust storms and the dry landscape. From this experience, we learnt that artists are influenced by what surrounds them.

After that, we went to the Howard Steer Museum. This gallery was very different, as the paintings from Bush and Beyond used much lighter colours depicting scenery and Howard Steer painted with very vibrant, bright and bold colours, portraying Australian slang. His paintings told a story and were predominately humorous. We also learnt that he drew a flying doctor in every painting to signify it was uniquely his.

Today proved exceptionally useful in gathering information, as we were able to gain a high understanding of art in the area and also gather plenty of inspiration from such a wide range of diverse artists.

Day 6 – Saturday 24/3/12

During our really busy yet exciting day at Silverton, we were fortunate enough to share some great experiences like camel riding, visiting the old Silverton school house, the goal museum the Mundi Mundi plains lookout, day dream mine and the sculpture park.

At first we were able to enjoy the vast landscape from new heights when we had our very first camel rides. Following, we took a lesson at a school set in the 1950s where we learnt how to write with the original ink pen, dipping it into blue ink to write. We also listened to stories about the history of the school and more about what life was like at that time. Finally we received a quick tour around the gaol museum.

Our next stop was the Mundi Mundi lookout. The place was scenic and had a beautiful view of lush green hills overlapping each other. This was a very rare sight to see as usually the vast areas that stretched our before us would reflect a much more dry climate. Still, the sky was a beautiful blue and we really were in awe by the beauty that surrounded us.

Daydream mine was also a spectacular place to go. We began with an underground tour of the mine where we were shown the conditions that miners worked in. Many of us felt claustrophobic trying to get through some tight spaces so working under there seemed quite undesirable. Afterwards we were given a surface tour of the mines where we saw how they were entered, transport into the mines and small brick houses made by miners. We were told about the harsh health consequences of breathing in dust and harmful substances that resulted in emphysema and other lung disorders, meaning that if they miners didn’t sleep upright they would choke on their own blood. Pretty gruesome…

Finally, following another beautiful scenic yet tiring uphill walk we went to see the sculptures, proving a much more red, dusty and dry atmosphere. From the top, we were able to get an amazing view of the entire Broken Hill area. What we found most interesting about the sculptures was the deeper meaning and inspiration that the artists had. Many portrayed natural and spiritual or cultural aspects. Aesthetically they were also a fantastic sight and very unique as owing to the nature of rock, we were able to get up really close. We could get up close and touch it as it was part of nature, despite the fact that it was carved by men.

Day 7 – Sunday 25/3/12

Today we received an art workshop from one of the art teachers from Broken Hill High School, Clark Barrett. He tried to improve our copying skills when drawing our hand, by getting us to pay closer attention to detail, so not looking at the paper when drawing, only our hand. Many of us found this quite difficult, especially the logical, left brained people.

Afterwards, we took a shiny metal object such as kettle and drew it with charcoal. This exercise was focusing on tone and shading.

Our next task was to paint a landscape scene of Broken Hill. We learnt the best way to blend colours, like giving the sky different tones of blue. We added the ground and then used a calligraphy brush to draw in a tree and dirt track. We learnt how to create actual treetops instead of jabbing the paper to make it look like cotton candy. Instead you need to flick the brush. Last of all we added some clouds. What was also interesting was using masking tape on top of the paper and peeling it off at the end to leave a white frame, a pretty useful technique.

Day 8 – Monday 26/3/12

On our last research day Tori, Sabrina and Maxine stayed at Mulberry Vale as we had already completed our service, either at church or school of the air, whilst Christine completed hers at the RSPCA. We continued updating our wiki, tweaked our question slightly and ended up changing some of our presentation ideas. Instead of just four quadrants, we thought it better to take individual elements of Broken Hill and put one on each square, dividing it up into 16 puzzle pieces. From there we wrote out a list of potential subject matter that we could cover. Later on when Christine joined our group we divided it up so we had four each:

Sabrina – Watercolour
 * Flowers (Sunflower, sturt desert pea, bittersweet nightshade)
 * Elements of mining
 * Green landscape from recent weather (Mundi Mundi plains?) with emu
 * Rusty objects from daydream mine/corrugated iron

Christine - Photography
 * Wheat
 * Large war memorial chair
 * Signs
 * Windmill

Tori - Black and white
 * Sculpture
 * Flooding
 * Train/Railway tracks
 * Minerals/mining related

Maxine - Acrylics
 * Night sky
 * Outback road
 * Insects
 * Sunrise/set

We then had the Ross Clark minerals exhibit which was really cool. We received more information on the history of mining and how much of an impact it had on the economy as the area contains the largest deposits of silver, lead and zinc ore in the world. It was shocking to hear that 40 was considered old age if you worked in the mines but those that did work there were very wealthy, making Broken Hill once a very populated place. We also saw some fossils that were not from the area, but exceptionally rare. Some that were found on mountains had been raised up over millions and millions of years from the sea floor.

Day 9 – Tuesday 27/3/12

We spent the day at Broken Hill high school and received a science lesson on…. Geology… again and at this point it probably would have been a good idea to focus the project on mining because we would have received so much information about it. Most things about its history we had already heard about but there was more of a focus about minerals from the area, unlike the very diverse variety from Ross Clarke. We also received some galena to take home which was nice. Besides some getting-to-know-you-games we also found out about the preservation of aboriginal rock art, burial sites and the genetics between aboriginals and non-aboriginals. Unfortunately from this there was nothing we could really use since we have hardly seen any aboriginal art, so that was slightly disappointing.

Another trip we had was to the RFDS. Even though it was irrelevant to our work it was still very interesting to hear about all the different things that they do. We heard some very interesting stories from the Flying Padre and watched a short film showing the types of people that use the RFDS services.

Day 10 – Wednesday 28/3/12

Today was a large day of travelling. At first we went to Wilcannia where we learnt about eco friendly buildings that included evaporation air-conditioning, double laminated glass and solar panels. We also heard more interesting stories about frogs and weddings – but nothing particularly related to art.

We then went to white cliffs and were told more about the lifestyle in the area and what it involved in terms of shopping, communication, transport and other challenges in remote areas.

After lunch, we went to an underground hotel, which was also pretty interesting but still, unfortunately not so relevant to our project. And finally, we had another presentation on bush tucker. This was very informative and included lots of information about natural Aboriginal medicine and its effects and all different sorts of bush food as well as some astronomy and different roles for those in the Aboriginal community.

Day 11 – Thursday 29/3/12

Today some of our group made the effort to get up early and take some lovely pictures of the sunrise before work started. Hopefully some of them will be useful for the project. After breakfast we had an “interesting” work session as there were several communication errors in the group and so we got a bit frustrated. Initially we hadn’t discussed size, so some of us thought we were doing A1 and others A2. Eventually we agreed on A1 but since it wasn’t available in black we decided to get 2 pieces of A2 card to mount it on. Then there was the fact of how to put it together. Do we put them vertically side-by-side? Or would that look too divided and not related? After all this was a puzzle, it has to connect. Or do we make it horizontal with no gaps. Or would that look dodgy? These are some of the questions we went through. In this process however, people kept adding on too many ideas and not articulating them clearly enough so others got confused and therefore frustrated and so on, until we actually started listening to each other. In the end, we decided to leave it as side by side vertically, except with a curve down the middle, representing the line of lode.

Once that was over we were able to be more productive in actually starting the project. Part of the group measured everything up and others collected natural materials like flowers and leaves to press. Then some of us cut out sections of the puzzle while others pressed the materials. Then people were working on the speech while others allocated the pieces and so we managed to do everything that had to be done in Mulberry Vale before presentations, except finalise our speech. Not all of us got a chance to edit it so we did that later on, after the presentations.

The final weekend – Saturday 31, Sunday 1, Monday 2/4/12

Over the course of the weekend we each completed our puzzle pieces, organised what to bring to the presentation on Tuesday, edited over the speech and finished updating any last pictures and bits of information to the wiki.

Presentation day – Tuesday 3/4/12

Speech: S: Good afternoon teachers, parents and fellow students. My name is Sabrina. C: Christine T: Tori. M: and I’m Maxine.

We are Artscape 2, and our theme was based on the cultural environment. After much discussion and speculation, our question was finalised as, “How have experiences and features of Broken Hill influenced the art produced in the area?” There are numerous renowned artists that have set foot upon Broken Hill, and many whom still reside there including Howard Steer, Kevin White, Roxanne Minchin, Wendy Martin and many others. Rather than be known as the outback, perhaps the “artback” would be a more accurate term to describe this artistic place. We decided to summarise our research, and express our findings in the form of an artwork. This final product aims to show how Broken Hill has inspired each of us, whether it be the built environment, the social environment, the natural environment, the cultural environment or thehistory. After interviewing several artists we found that it was all of these elements unique to Broken Hill, which had an immense impact on the art created there. We discovered that mining is a major industry in the area, the whole town being built around and along a line of load, an underground area with large deposits of minerals, and in the case of Broken Hill, silver, lead and zinc ore. Our artwork metaphorically represents Broken Hill, with the line of load running down the middle, highlighting its importance in economically shaping the Australia we now know today. We have decided to create each image on a puzzle piece, symbolising the interconnectedness of the town and that without every piece present, Broken Hill would not be complete. Every image depicts an important aspect of Broken Hill and each of us have used a different medium and style to represent the varied artistic techniques used by the artists in the area. For example I was very much inspired by the vibrant landscape so I used acrylic paints. Artists like Pro Hart also influenced some of the styles I have chosen to include. As a group we really admired the artworks by Kevin White who used crushed minerals to portray mining scenes. We appropriated this idea in adding other naturally occurring elements from the area such as bittersweet nightshade flowers and some of the red soil. To conclude we would like to invite everyone to take a further look at table**…** We are happy to answer any questions about our project, or Broken Hill in general.