Nature Shelter
Nature Shelter is a 2m+ immersive art installation with an aim to explore and play with natural materials, construction, and stillness and attempt to visually translate the ineffable. Combining psychedelic themes, otherworldly states, and a reverence for nature, the project looked at giving space over to the viewer, creating a space oasis.
The first iteration was built during a Project 24 residency and made use of the dance studio features, specifically a wall mirror that reflected back the shelter and the viewer inside. The artwork took 150 hours to create and you can view the making of documentation HERE.
DETAILS
As an emerging artist with a practice depicting a reverence for nature, accessible and natural/sustainable materials were an important consideration. 100 poles of local invasive bamboo were harvested by hand. Wool was sourced second hand and pine needles were collected from my home. A spotlight over the shelter was used which emitted a warm glow and natural heat. Gold leaf was applied selectively on the inside bamboo.
Pine needles laid underneath the bamboo poles, a yellow wool veil door and a moss wool cushion inside
Gold leaf used symbolically within the shelter
Nature Shelter – an immersive installation
Second-hand sourced wool used to create the moss cushion
Close up inside the shelter
SHOWING
The Project 24 residency involved an end-of-month nighttime showing. I wanted to utilise the vastness of the space by having the shelter act as an enclosed cocooned space but also to play with altered perspectives from a psychedelic lens. The audience was guided into the space one at a time, with set instructions. The first instruction was to sit in a chair facing a wall. A sunset lamp was projected in front of the viewer. Headphones with tranquil music were provided and instructed to be placed on. After 1.5 minutes I came back into the room and instructed the viewer into the shelter. The viewer was given another 1.5 minutes before I came back in with chimes and instructed them to leave the shelter via the stairs and enter the final room, a set-up feedback space.
Pre-admission to the shelter involved sitting in front of a sunset light listening to music
The showing utilised the large studio space, playing with the large back mirrors and using selected lighting
Entry to the shelter via a thin wool curtain with a moss cushion inside
The shelter and self were reflected back via the large studio mirrors
The installation played with senses (light, sound, and touch) with a key emphasis upon solitude and reflection
The view when inside the shelter looking up
FEEDBACK
I had 32 people experience the work. I collected feedback from the attendees, below are some of their gathered words
appreciated, at ease with self, blessed by nature, blissful, cosy, delighted, encapsulation, feeling of stillness, fortunate, hopeful, golden, joy, lovely, lush, magical, meditative, mysterious, reflective, self-awareness, sensory, submersed in a cocoon, comforted, curiosity, content, enlightened, happy, nurtured, rejuvenated, serene, thoughtful/thought-provoking, tranquil, wonder, beautiful, childhood, relaxed, loved, peaceful, a deep calm, warmth
/I love the diversity of the expected vs unexpected
/I enjoyed imagining my soul descending into the womb of my mother, the egg that became my home. I enjoyed feeling like I was witnessing my consciousness becoming self-aware as I sit cross-legged like a mushroom Buddha
/I loved the deliberate intent + space for me to come to the work + explore it
/Simplicity and simultaneous profundity of every moment is amplified and articulated by the warm glow of the nature shelter
/Simply what I needed for longer
/A home away from home
/Loved the concept and immersive aspect
/Made me feel like a child with no worries and nowhere to be
/I can imagine what a forest would feel like
/A stolen place of serenity or a little secret. Like a semi-forgotten park in a city. Some ‘Twin Peaks’ vibes
/Admiring the “shrine to self” up and around and the light then facing the shadowy figure that was my body sat crosslegged in front of me…perched happily upon a tuff of moss
/That something so simple and earnest yet filled with commitment and thought can exist.
/Serenity at last
/Wanting to connect with natural surroundings
/Crawling through I felt so connected to my inner child
/ I love climbing into the shelter. The lighting made it feel so magical and surreal, the moss looked so inviting and I felt like a character in a ghibli film
VIDEO WALK THROUGH
Video Credit: Emaya
ITERATION 2 FEEDBACK
Nature Shelter was shown for a second time at The Old Ambulance Station (26th Aug – 3 Sep) as Part Of Horizon Festival 2023. The second showing included a bead-embroidered guidelines, and a sound element. Attendees were invited to find their own way into the shelter, and inside (on top of the moss cushion) were headphones and instructions to play the recording. I collaborated with musician Elijah Huckel who created a serene score alongside my spoken word. Below is some of the feedback collected during the exhibition.
/peaceful experience, serenity, nature, calm, quiet, relaxed, centred, humbled, trippy, open, serene, sensory heaven, zen, intrigued, unsure, unusual, connection to nature, beautiful, floating happy, divine emotions, pausing, at peace, feeling safe, comfort
/I felt like a child curled up hiding in a hollowed out tree again 🙂
/Beautiful delicate relaxing charming calming intimate homely earthy wonderful
/I did not expect the intensely moving and transformative experience that completely immersed every fibre of my being…and for what seemed like an eternity. 3 minutes had an impact I will feel forever
/Beautiful moment of mindfulness
/A fine reflective experience
/At peace, a beautiful voice and music and poetic words for an otherwise cold space outside the art piece.
/New perspective on life & Australia
/Meditative as though I been in the forest
/Amazing space to drop into heart n soul
/Wanting to stay – reminder of our golden orb
/It reminded me that everything we would ever need, is within and around us. We are nature and nature is us. It made me feel reconnected.
/Its grounding to realise that us and the earth are the same. To feel connected.
/Gentle union glowing sparkle greens, golds, and some blue sprinkle my soul seated upon mossy space feeling perfection, after all
/Touched, teary and transported
/Relaxed + ready for nap
/Beautiful space, love the light inside, perfect escape
/Feeling engulfed by nature
/Being immersed in nature an awareness & grateful
/Relief and an odd sense of contentment, awkwardly peaceful
/Calming, tight but not claustrophobic
/I felt like I was in a beautiful mediation
/The feeling of being in a cave on top of a mountain
/Surprise door…like a secret cubby, inside feels and sounds like where id like to l
