Weaving and breathing
And so I moved to Kangaroo Island with my girlfriend Ky Alecto and her kid Yeshe and Joy the dog. The house we are renting sits on 3000 acres of beautiful Australian bushland, bursting with native animals. A beautiful river winds through the property to a secret beach on the islands rugged south west coast. It has been a very easy transition for me from a lifetime of city living to a remote country lifestyle. Each day is greeted with yoga and mediation, perhaps then a canoe or bike adventure, fishing, weaving baskets or just doing nothing. Always eating well. Our possum and wallaby proof vegetable garden is starting to yield, and I have gone back into daily training with my circus skills.
Kangaroo Flat, my back yard on the banks of the Stun Sail Boom River, Kangaroo Island.
This period has seen several of my recent film projects getting busy. The Rover released one still almost a year ago, with a huge public response. My web site, good for about 4 hits a day, hit over a thousand that day, largely thanks to Robert Pattinsons enormous fan base. There has been nothing else released for almost a year, and now a bunch of new stills and a trailer have sparked big interest. Its a really exciting film to be involved with.
The Rover. Robert Pattinson.
The movie Tracks had it international premiere at the Toronto International film festival and has re-branded the original book with one of my portraits as its cover. It was great to see the film go with a wide landscape still for their poster, one of the shots I took on film with my Hasselblad camera, an image that captures the beauty and journey of the film well.
I caught Tracks at a cast and crew screening in Adelaide. A personal highlight was seeing Mia Wasikowska weaving a little natural basket on screen. I had been giving her a couple of lessons on set and she just kept on going and worked it into the scene. I was delighted it made the cut.
Mia Wasikowska and Rolley Mintuma in Tracks. Mia holds the basket that she was working on that day.
The Babadook premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and this low budget horror film had a big impact on international critics and the festival audience. It had been an intense shoot, ridiculously ambitious for its tiny budget, but the passion and skills of the writer/director Jenifer Kent and the commitment and raw talent of her actors ,Essie Davis and 6 year old Noah Wiseman, seems to have achieved a great result.
The Babadook. Noah Wiseman and Essie Davis.
A bunch of my stills will be featured in the WOW film Festival this month. The festival celebrates woman in film and my stills have been featured on the festival poster and the stills exhibition invite.
The WOW film festival and stills exhibition, featuring stills from Somersault and The Eye of the Storm.
As a basket weaver it has taken a little while to get to know my new place; finding suitable weaving materials around the property and learning what they do. I have been working with long grass and a couple of varieties of reeds that grow along the river. Most days get a chance to head off and harvest materiels or to sit and weave at my special spot by the river. A collection of woven rocks, rattles and a variety of baskets are starting to come together. I sit on the threshold of launching my basket weaving label and products to the world at the Community Market in Penneshaw next month. I am really hoping for a little article in The Islander newspaper, and it would be great to get some of my work in one of the island’s galleries. Is the Kangaroo Island ready for Basketboy?
A woven rock (laterite), rattle and basket from my Stun Sail Boom River series.