DARKswell

Part Documentary. Part Love Letter

“When the place you love and live suddenly becomes unfamiliar there is a wrench of the heart. Simultaneously there is a fierce urge to protect what is left in preparation for what will arrive once again.”
Julie Vulcan

Three years in the making, animating hundreds of still photos, and editing hours of recorded interviews, DARKswell is a unique audio-visual performance. A series of stop motion films, interspersed with live story-telling reveal the process of human, plant and wildlife recovery after the Green Wattle Creek and Dunns Road fires swept through the properties of three different landholders in 2019/2020. Weaving Julie’s personal account with the landholders journey, their common lived experience offers an insight into love, patience, care, and the understanding of shared homes. Over sixty minutes Julie takes the audience on a personal journey of the everyday in the first eighteen months after bushfire. Drawing attention to the intricacies of life swelling beneath the charcoaled surface of lands regenerating, DARKswell challenges us to see the vital and often invisible processes that are supporting what is perceived to be gone.

After the Rain April 2020. Photo: Julie Vulcan

Performer and lead artist: Julie Vulcan

Sound designer: Ashley Scott

Images: Julie Vulcan with contributions from David Bray, Louise Freckelton and Bindi Vanzella

Vox: Craig Anderson, David Bray, Louise Freckelton, Ashley Scott, Bindi Vanzella and Julie Vulcan

Woven carex wren nest: Louise Freckelton

A big thank you to Craig Anderson, David Bray, Louise Freckelton, Shane Herrington, Kathryn Masterson and Aunty Cheryl Penrith for walking and talking with me. A huge thank you to Sarah Last, Anna Schoo and Xan Colman for supporting and enabling the realisation of the work.

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Gundungurra and Tharawal peoples. I also acknowledge the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu and Ngunnawal peoples custodians of the land on which this project was extended and whose country the fires also swept through. I remember that sovereignty was never ceded.

2022  Wired Open Day, Jugiong, NSW AUS

2023 Biodiversity Month Wingecarribbee Council Environment and Sustainability, Moss Vale Civic Centre, NSW AUS

2024 Community Foundation Tumut Commemorative event, Laurel Hill Forest Lodge, NSW AUS

This work was commissioned by Wired Lab for the agri(culture) II project as part of Wired Open Day 2022. This project is supported by the Australian Govenmnent’s Festival Australia, Indigenous Languages and Arts programs, Regional Arts Australia Regional Art Fund; Hilltops Council via the NSW Government’s Reconnecting Regional NSW Community, Community Events program; NSW government through Create NSW and assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.