Breathing Lake: dreams of the uprooted’ is an ongoing artistic research project on the loss of belonging to place due to climate crisis and colonial legacies. Through an extended artistic research process between Australia, Germany and Switzerland from 2021-2024, the project examined personal migration stories of the artist’s ancestors, the present contexts of Australia and destructive climate change effects, the lake Lucerne and Swiss perceptions of landscape. These places were drawn together in the creative exploration of how climate change creates the loss of home on a global scale.

At the 2024 Studiolab days at Südpol cultural centre in Lucerne, the project took multiple forms, including an artist book, a video and sound installation, and a live sound performance. The installation brought two places into dialogue with each other: Lake Lucerne and the lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung in Australia – the area where the artist grew up. The work moved between places that are still there and places that have disappeared because of climate change and now only exist in memory. It explored how the legacies of colonialism continue to reverberate and create a world characterised by ecological crises.

Working with sounds, images, textiles, poetry and songs, the video and sound works wove two distinct places into a conversation that centred on the disappearance of place, the instability of memory, and how grieving can create a space of reflection and transformation. Present in the work is a third, ‘ghost’ place, the German settlement village of Wilhelma in historic Palestine where the artist’s ancestors lived before moving to Australia in 1948. Using archival images and the combined mediums of water and film, this third presence speaks to the repetition of colonial acts, and how these continue in the effects of climate change today.

The written master thesis took the form of an artist book that used the format of letters, addressed to human ancestors, more-than-human entities like the Lake Lucerne, and places now lost or disappeared. Working with relief linocut prints as handwritten memories of water, they follow the letters through the book alongside archival images and poetry.

The sound performance combined reading a letter written to the audience, and a song performed by the artist that was in the form of an acapella lament. The song explored the position of the artist within these fragmented places, their personal connection to place and ancestor’s memories. The sound work included field recordings from the locations the installation touches, bringing them into a live space and dialogue with the audience.

Work links:

1. Dear Country and Breathing Lake excerpt, 2024, (sound works from installation), duration: 04:46. To listen click here.
2. Song for Breathing excerpt, 2024, (song and live sound performance), duration: 02:23. To listen click here.
3. Breathing Lake: dreams of the uprooted video excerpt, 2024, duration: 03:31. To watch video click here.
4. Pdf copy of the artist book ‘Breathing Lake: dreams of the uprooted’ accessible here.