Images of Tasmania
Christine Owen
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark
For the straightforward pathway
Had been lost
Dante, Canto 1
Like Dante, many of us find ourselves on that path; a path on which we all walk and a time and space when we lose our way. This is the in-between space; between the past-time and the future-time; a midpoint.
Gleaning petrified wood fragments at the Derwent River’s edge, prompts reflections on transformations – of deep and shallow time, the infinitude vastness of earth/universe time and our own fleeting experience of it. These found petrified wood fragments are relics and ghostly reminders of ancient trees and forests – messengers from lost past worlds –including our own and other species midpoints.
The creative approach I employ replicates petrification on a different time scale. The processes used combine 19th Century contact-based photograms, etching using river water, sunlight, 21st Century digital scanning and multi-layering. The outcomes, reveal ghostly hauntings of other-worlds. Remnants of petrified trees advance across layers of compressed strata: of earth, water, mineral and rock and invite us each to contemplate those moments when we feel lost, to have the courage to continue life’s journey and tread forward.
