apple tree test from Cat Wilson on Vimeo.
Close to my home in Northcote on the corner of Hebert street and Beavers road is a vacant lot. It is situated by the rail line and the Beavers road rail crossing, full of gravel, weeds, dumped rubbish and is used as a car park during the day by many of the construction workers involved in near by developments. It is also home to a majestic old feral apple tree.
From January 2009 to January 2010 I followed 2 processes:
- take a photo of the scene 4 times every Thursday at 7am, 12:30pm, 6pm, 11pm.
- take a photo every 2 minutes for 24-hours, repeating this once for each season.
As a result of these repeated actions over a sustained period some interesting dynamics have emerged between the location, the artist and with the community surrounding the both the site and the project. In order to capture and reflect this I have also been keeping a weekly blog since May 2009.
As part of the final 24 hour shoot in Summer I invited people to participate. There was a different person in every photo between 4pm and 6pm on the Saturday afternoon. Each person stood in the same position in the frame and faced the same direction. Here is a clip from those 2 hours.
60 peeps in 2 hours from Cat Wilson on Vimeo.
With a years worth of footage now captured I am currently working on the second phase of this project. I plan to produce three distinct video installations. These aim to challenge notions of the natural environment as separate to the city, and create a space for the contemplation of our perception of time and the rhythms of change.