STILL | LIFE

This album is a series of soundscapes composed for the art exhibition "STILL | LIFE - shell, bone, breath - re-calling the Marrambidya through sound, touch and vision" showing at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery from 07 August 2026 - 18 October 2026. It is part of an installation by Rochelle Summerfield, Tracy Pateman and Will Rodgers.

During the early spring of 2024 Hopeful Disruptions were in the Riverina for our first Collective Artist Residency. Earth Canvas in conjunction with Wagga Wagga Art Gallery hosted us for four weeks - two weeks camping on Regenerative Farms in the Mundarlo area and two weeks in the E3 Artspace Studio at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. The work we did then lead to a commission for an exhibition by Wagga Wagga Art Gallery focussing on the Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee River) - to be installed in August 2026.

The installation\ explores sonic, haptic and visual representations of some impacts European colonisation has had on the Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee River), from the mountains to the floodplain. My curated soundscapes explore the deliberate destruction of the swan sanctuaries, the altered rise and fall of River water levels, and the environmental sounds of the living floodplain. Under the gaze of Dhundhu (the Black Swan), Tracy's wood and metal works invite people to viscerally experience the calcification and restrictive pressure from the crushing of the swan eggs and damming of the River and her tributaries. Moving through different scales of time, Rochelle's large portraits of ancient trees, drawings of seasonal grasses, and ephemeral works hold embodied traces of a fragile, precious yet resilient living breath persisting across the altered floodplain of the Marrambidya.

Many thanks to the wonderful staff at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery for your encouragement and making us feel welcome during the brilliant install week - Megan Monte, Claire Wemyss, Astrid Reed, Dylan Smyth and Drew Halyday.

A special thanks to Dr Lee-Anne Hall for having faith in us.