Sumptuous Surfaces - Week 1 - Concept Development

Concept Development:

Since moving to Australia I have had to come to terms with how strongly people feel about"feral" wildlife and plants. In England the animal and plant hunters made non-indigenous plants exotic and glamorous. The opposite of this took a bit of coming to terms with. Now I get it.

They are talking about "feral" in the sense of non-native or non-indigenous - things that are not supposed to be here. In a way perhaps earlier on being a new immigrant I took it personally - perhaps I was not supposed to be here. Was I feral? I was relieved to hear an Aboriginal elder tell me that they believe that if you are here, you are supposed to be here - that you have been blown in by the wind spirits for a reason.

So maybe feral is things that are not supposed to be here- that are upsetting the natural balance of this ancient continent. It was separated so long ago that it has a very delicate natural balance and extremely sensitive to change.

Camels in the desert - natural surely? Not here. Wild horses, brumbeys - are causing lots of problems.

Cane toads - the most famous example of biological control gone wrong.

Some of these feral things are so beautiful. When I walk along the coast from Bondi to Bronte the colours of the cannas, blue/purple bindweed and verbena sing against the blue sea and sky and look absolutely stunning. I have to remind myself that they are strangling the native plants and stopping them and the native animals from thriving.

I can understand the early settlers feeling homesick and bringing their songbirds and cottage garden flowers with them. I cried the first time I saw forget-me-nots in a florist here! They are causing chaos and now with global warming and international travel the process is accelerating.

Bush regeneration teams spend their spare time pulling up asparagus fern and nasturtiums along the coast and replace them with natives.

The Indian Mina bird - that I remember in a cage as a child doing impressions in the sweet shop in my grandfather's village - is here too. The local honey eater doesn't stand a chance against this aggressive persistent competitor.

Last week I saw a documentary showing the same problems the world over.

So now my concept association list:

Native, indigenous, feral?

Beautiful but deadly

Cane toad

Bindweed

nasturtiums

asparagus fern

carp in rivers

goodbye to frogs

not where they are supposed to be

Am I feral?

Barrier reef starfish - Crown of thorns - nitrogen run off

Starfish at St Kilda pier, Melbourne - from America

So my concept is "beautiful but deadly" and my design will be based on a starfish.

I have an image of the starfish I saw in Melbourne that I will work with. It was the Northern Pacific Seastar (Asterias amuensis).

"This large sea star has five arms with pointed tips and is mottled yellow and purple in colour. It is native to the northeastern Pacific, around Japan, Korea, Russia and China. The Northern Pacific Seastar was discovered in Tasmania in 1986 and in Port Phillip Bay in 1995. In the Derwent estuary near Hobart it now dominates the sea floor. In Port Phillip Bay it is now widespread. In January 2004 the Northern Pacific Seastar was found to have spread to shallow reefs near Inverloch in southeastern Victoria. Volunteer divers and staff of the Department of Sustainability and Environment are attempting to eradicate this latest outbreak."

Now to work on an image/design...