Fabrik Arts and Heritage, Lobethal

16 February - 15 March 2020

The Cudlee Creek fires that burnt over 25,000 hectares of the district late December 2019, came to within metres of the 150 year old Mill in Lobethal, a precinct housing many businesses including Fabrik. The CFS thankfully saved lives and townships but were under resourced to protect the much loved Lobethal and Charleston Bushland Parks, and Porter Scrub. A sad loss for the surrounding communities and the unique and ancient biodiversity in the Adelaide Hills. 

As stewards of this wonderful place we call home, environmental recovery is interwoven with human recovery. Working in close partnership with Fabrik Arts and Heritage for the timely fourth iteration of Solastalgia, 12 artists gifted the Adelaide Hills community their heart felt responses to the current crisis.

Contributing Artists

Solastalgia - an antidote was held within the walls of the old factory floor at the Onkaparinga Woollen Mill in Lobethal, just a few short steps from the main gallery, home to the Recovery Centre. In the week prior to the opening, individuals affected by the fires, Cleric, Red Cross, Army and other support service personnel dropped by to witness the exhibition unfold and stay for a chat. Once open, the building's generous proportions and light filled space became a haven for the community to come together, to shift their gaze and tired bodies from the trauma and the rescue work, to rest, and find welcome solace among the exhibited works. The artworks breathed them in and exhaled hope. Abundance replaced loss and despair, and the sense of belonging rather than longing brought large audiences, many of whom would return.

An estimated 400 attended the opening of Solastalgia - an antidote at Fabrik February 15. The evening was an amazing celebration of life and a memorable marker in time for Lobethal and surrounding communities, heralding the beginning of a fresh wave of healing. The opening began with Allegria flash mob choir and audience encircling Melissa Hellwig’s Chlorophyll Spirit mandala. The choir sang up the country till poet Belinda Broughton brought a crowded exhibition space to a breathless standstill with a slow and achingly beautiful molecular dismantling of our Edges until there were none. A visibly moved John Sandham Collections Manager from the Botanic Gardens responded to the exhibits and Ecologist and Cudlee Creek resident Joan Gibbs spoke of her personal experience of the fires, their impact on local ecology, restoration, and a future we will not see. A reminder of Nelson Henderson's 'The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.'

Although the theme, Solastalgia - an antidote was conceived many months before the fires, and the art works made no reference to the crisis, doubts existed about the event going ahead. Might the mounting of the exhibition be considered an inappropriate use of resources and not what the community needed at that time? It was, as artist Belinda Broughton described it, the time of 'null', just after the fire 'before regrowth when both people and land are exhausted and in deep shock'. As a local and the only one among us directly affected by the fires, Belinda's take on how community might receive the exhibition was key. Guided by this, and the gallery director Melinda Rankin's consultation with the community, a collective decision was made to proceed. 

Belinda's own response to the go-ahead was radical. From the depths of a darkened well of hope, came the resolve to use the charcoal remains from her bush home to draw on the long, heritage listed wall in the exhibition space. ‘The charcoal that blackened my home will become bio char and the earth will become more resilient for it.' she blogged during the week spent drawing the conversation between herself and her bush home. 'Perhaps my inner being is also like that’. Despite grief and uncertainty about the future, there was faith and potential healing in the cathartic, creative process.

Evette Sunset's ephemeral work framing Belinda's charcoal drawing was well underway the weekend before the opening when the Re-gathered Fundraiser Bush Fire Recovery Market was held in the exhibition space. 6000 attendees supporting local affected businesses were witness to Evette’s work in progress, creating a buzz around what was to happen in the space.

In the weeks prior, whilst working with the organic materials sourced from near-by burnt properties for Eye of the Storm, Evette found herself immersed in story from locals and personnel from the adjacent the Recovery Centre. In response to the losses expressed, the artist and visionary with 30 years experience in landscape design conceived of a plan that would re-purpose the materials used in her installation, to nurture the growth of a tiny forest of trees at the town’s entrance. A collaboration with the local community association emerged and will see Evette's vision for the Mill Road Corner Community Pocket Forest realized.

The finished art work that had taken 26 days to harvest, collect and install, became the still spot in The Eye of the Storm around which the work of 11 other artists and some 2000 visitors, including 160 students from Lobethal School found comfort and a place to reconnect. It is hoped that this gathering of attention and intention will continue into the future with a growing Pocket Forest re-building a sense of hope and place.

The four weeks of open hearted responses from Lobethal’s 'Valley of Praise' matched the artist’s generous offerings, and a shared love and light was woven into all the artworks. Audiences reclined beneath projected images of forest giants; curled up in ‘village’ coracles to consider their greatest sorrows and deepest gratitudes; listened to sounds generated by a Jurassic Wollemi and regenerating soil; discovered generous offerings in woven basketry; witnessed seeds opening in an ephemeral earth art mandala; drew strength from crafted words and ancient rocks from the Flinders Ranges; scanned a 13 metre long charcoal story of earth recovery; encountered luminescent scorpions and an infinite view of the mycelium underworld; and experienced ‘deep listening’ in the Listening Chairs. Audiences also gathered for poetry performances by Belinda Broughton, a floor talk by Evette Sunset and an outdoor sound-work demonstration by Heidi Kenyon.

The success of Solastalgia - an antidote in Lobethal models the productive way in which artists and supporting galleries can help communities navigate a crisis by building a shared sense of place. The artworks deepened the awareness and emotional connection between us all in relation to our natural world, shifting the focus from individual suffering to collective healing. 

“Yes, it looks bleak. But you are still alive now. You are alive with all the others, in this present moment. And because the truth is speaking in the work, it unlocks the heart.”

Joanna Macy