Rufus Whistler
by Amanda Donohue
in response to
Callitris glaucophylla
by Kim V. Goldsmith

Audio Description

Audio Description Text

My name is Amanda Donohue, the artist of Rufus Whistler, that responds to the sounds and texts of Kim Goldsmith. Rufus Whistler is a textile work including recycled and eco-dyed fabric with hand stitching. It is 58cm long by 35cm wide. I had a fleeting image of what the work could look like from the description of the trees outlined against the sky and the sound of the bird, hidden in the trees. Textiles enabled me to convey the various textures in the thicket. The work has strips of fabric in a range of brown hues, a bright blue fabric at the top and muted tones of green at the base. Stitching meanders over the piece suggesting the furrowed bark and fauna. The hero of the piece is stitched in one corner. If you were to touch Rufus Whistler, it would feel like a comfortable bed with grains of rice.

Callitris glaucophylla

by Kim V. Goldsmith

inhalare part 1 – text

Kim V. Goldsmith, Dubbo

Callitris glaucophylla

Shimmering, pollen-laden Callitris glaucophylla jostle on the stony slope; muddy macropod tracks slice through this peri-urban thicket.

A plane drones above a discordant song of woodland birds and dam-born frogs; crepitations of the multi-trunked mother tree pierced by whining, winter-born mosquitos.

Swollen ankles swaddled in leggy greens on a damp bed of bleached needles and broken limbs—a blanket below naked crowns outlined against Argentine blue.

Deeply furrowed bark encases fragrant heartwood; girths not covered in dry moss—fake turf-like to the touch—are callused with lichens.

An unheard world thrums and gurgles, dependent on this dark, cool copse.

Opportunistic ticks, weaving spiders, woolly aphids cling to microscopic pine scales while fungi fairy rings cast their crepuscular glow in fading light.

Shy opera singer of the bush, the Rufous Whistler calls time. Hidden in a darkening maze of branches above, its soaring song and whip-cracking notes follow me home.

All images, recordings and words are copyright and cannot be copied, broadcast, or otherwise used without the express written permission of the artist who created them.