AQUA LOCI: Lyndal Jones
Recurring Rain Fantasy
Now, in the Spring/Summer of 2023, they say the El Niño pattern will return, Flemington will become dust once more..
About the artwork and interactive map
By 2008, the El Niño weather pattern had been strengthening for many years across inland Australia. As it did so, rain events continually lessened until, it seemed, there was no rain at all. This heat/drought pattern between 1996 and 2010 was so relentless for so long it became known as ‘The Millennium Drought’.
In Melbourne, to conserve water, laws were enacted that meant that only hand-watering of gardens could take place and only for an hour on alternate evenings. Lawns could not be watered at all. The lush green that we had presumed was Melbourne became the brown dust of the surrounding countryside as our colonial attempts to replicate the soft green of England was revealed as the fantasy it was. With the heat of summer even the huge London Plane Trees lining the streets of Flemington simply dropped their leaves when they were most needed.
In the summer of 2008, I spent three weeks at Bundanon, an art centre in the coastal bushland south of Sydney. Here there was rain. Lots of it. Perhaps a premonition of the increasing intensity of future rain events with the earth heating… But, for someone who had been lugging bath water to the vegetable patch for years, it was magical. I recorded it one day, wanting to remind friends what rain looked like.
Eventually a La Niña weather pattern returned and there was rain again. Did the Melbourne gardens change when they could be replanted? Clearly not enough. While some councils began planting street trees that might withstand increased heat, local gardens were again full of birch trees and jasmine. The colonial fantasy simply returned, now supported by a long La Niña weather pattern. The weather was now gentler, the rain plentiful, and we forgot. We again worked hard at the pretence of being a transplanted England.
But now, in the Spring/Summer of 2023, they say the El Niño pattern will return, bringing increased heat and drought. Flemington will become dust once more. Perhaps a rain fantasy, even if it taken from sub-tropical NSW, will help…
View Lyndal's artwork by interacting with the map...
About the artist
Lyndal Jones is an artist who focuses on the politics of context, place and gender through very long-term projects. Her multidisciplinary practice incorporates elements of theatre, music, visual art, dance, photography and video. Through the combination of these components, Jones develops predominantly sustained research-based projects; the resultant installation and performance works explore contemporary social issues such as feminism, climate change and place.
Jones’ solo exhibitions include The Prediction Pieces, 1981–1991/2016, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2016); Darwin With Tears, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2008); The Avoca Project, Avoca, Victoria (2006–2016); and Deep Water/Aqua Profunda, 49th Venice Biennale (2001). Her work is held in a number of public collections, including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; as well as private collections in Australia and Europe.
