Kassandra Bossell with Trevor Brown (sound)
Mama, World Creator, Networker of Ecosystems 2021
Forton MG and pigment with multichannel transduction system

Beyond Human
Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Camperdown
A group exhibition from the Tree Veneration Society
Curated by Kassandra Bossell

Mother Trees are the biggest trees in the forest that are connected with other trees through an intricate web of mycorrhizal fungi. These fungal threads called mycelium form a nutrient highway for carbon, water, nutrients, alarm signals and hormones, sustaining the whole forest and its extensive networked ecosystems.

Trevor Brown has designed and created a multichannel transduction system turning the sculpture into a resonating speaker. Field recordings and music have been composed in response to the sculpture, featuring tree-based instruments. Wooden flute and bass clarinet played by Trevor Brown. Yidaki played by Blak Douglas.

See the “>Opening night performance
A water duet, ‘Gapu’ composed and played on opening night of Beyond Human by Blak Douglas on yidaki and Trevor Brown on bass clarinet.

‘Within a Yolŋu Indigenous ontology, animals, rocks, winds, tides, emotions, spirits, songs and humans speak. They all have language and knowledge and Law. They all send messages; commu- nicate with each other. Country is the Aboriginal English word which encompasses this vibrant and sentient understanding of space/place which becomes bounded through its interconnectivity. Country and everything it encompasses is an active participant in the world, shaping and creating it. It is far from a passive backdrop to human experience, a scene in which humans live their lives…’

Working with and learning from Country: decentring human author-ity
Cultural Geographies 2015, Vol. 22(2) 269–283.