3 Digital prints on Phototex fabric. each print: 62.0 x 62.0 cm. Plinth 68 0 x 68.0 x 0.12 cm, galvanised iron, sand and ochre pigment. The white ochre in the work is from Pinnacles Beach south of Pambula. The red ochre from the Kiah Inlet (the mouth of the Towamba River). The Latvian runic symbol signifies the Earth Private collection

Panel 1. Kiah inlet. After 12 hours of tidal action.

Panel 2. Kiah inlet High tide.

Panel 3. Source of the Kiah, Towamba river, Rocky Hall.

The ground- work stencilled at the mouth of the Towamba river or Kiah inlet is orientated directly towards the headwaters and situated on the Bundian way.

Location of the work at the KIah inlet. A deep channel runs along the sandy strip in front of the site for work. First Nations People were able to spear a whale driven by Orcas to this beach. Google Earth image

Google Earth image.

Google Earth image.

Google Earth image.

In 1842 Oswald Brierly, 25 years old and a trained artist, accompanying Ben Boyd and led by their Aboriginal guide Budginbro, travelled from the Kiah Inlet and followed the Towamba River up to what is now Cathcart and beyond. Brierly made a number of sketches during the journey.

After three attempts I believe I found the site of Brierly’s sketch The Source of the Kiah and this is where the image for the headwater was recorded. The blue suit, white shirt and Vivienne Westwood tie worn by the subject with his face painted with ochre is a 21st.century re-interpretation of the men and horses and landscape all those years ago.

The white ochre in the work is from Pinnacles Beach south of Pambula. The red ochre from the Kiah Inlet (the mouth of the Towamba River). The Latvian runic symbol signifies the Earth The two stencilled works are made from the same source materials to form a tangible ochre link between the two ends of the river.

The work constitutes an ephemeral reciprocation to instigate ‘action at a distance’, within and contrary to the gravitational descent of water from headwater to inlet.