AUDIO DESCRIPTION #2
PHOTOGRAPHS 1-10

Crying
Kuba Dorabialski
Curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham
August 17 - September 22 2023
Verge Gallery, University of Sydney, Gadigal Country

On this wall, there are ten framed black and white landscape photographs displayed in a straight line. Each photograph measures 50 centimetres high and 50 centimetres wide and are printed on a soft textured paper called cotton rag. The photographs were taken on film, and they show some of the irregularities, soft qualities, and roughness of film photography.

All the photographs in the exhibition ‘Crying’ depict landscapes of the pine plantations in the Central West of New South Wales, on Wiradjuri Country, between Bathurst, Orange, Lithgow, and Oberon. They showcase the radiata pine plantations, the clearings that are left after a harvest, and the small quarries that are often abandoned in the plantations. The photographs focus on geography and place,capturing scenes that are stark and barren or close and intimate.

The second artwork from the left is of a thick, lush pine forest with tall and narrowtrees standing perfectly straight, extending beyond the top edge of the photograph. The scene is very dark, and almost black on the outside edges, but there is a soft light cutting through the middle, and a small patch of clear grey sky at the centre top. The perspective is at eye-level and along the bottom third of the photograph there is an unnatural cleared path that continues straight back into the distance. Along the path there is the odd tree stump and debris from the pine branches strewn across it. The location is a radiata pine plantation on Shooters Hill, Vulcan State Forest, Wiradjuri Country. 

The fourth artwork from the left is of a quarry pit. At the bottom of the image, is a small mound of various sized rocks stacked unevenly upon each other in approximately three rows on a flat dirt ground, running from left to right. There is a small even gap either side between the rock mound and edges of the photograph. The rocks are light in colour and in front of a dip with a straight dirt quarry wall rising behind it. In the distance, behind the quarry wall, you can see the tops of a row of dark grey pine trees against a clear light grey sky. The perspective is at eye-level – looking straight at the quarry wall. The rocks are in the bottom half of the photograph, and the quarry wall, trees, and sky are in the top half. This location is a gravel quarry near Mount Bindo, Hampton State Forest, Wiradjuri Country.

The fourth artwork from the right depicts a barren landscape at eye-level with only a few small spindly trees left behind on the outer edges of the photograph, some standing, and some fallen. A narrow dirt road with two tyre tracks runs up the middle, starting from the bottom of the photograph and heading towards the centre before veering sharply to the right along a hill, across the middle section of the photograph. The hill slopes steeply from the top left corner of the photograph down towards the middle of the right edge. The hill is bare with a scattering of sticks concentrated at the base of the hill around either side of the road. At the bottom of the photographand across the full width is a narrow creek with tufts of grass either side. The creekhas pooled in the centre over a dip in the road. The location is Mitchell's Creek near Mount Schofield, Sunny Corner State Forest, Wiradjuri Country.

The last photograph on the right shows the spikey tips of dark grey pine trees along the full length of the bottom edge in a row. Above them looms a grey hill that almost reaches the top of the photograph, gently sloping down from the right edge to the left edge. The perspective provides an elevated view of the landscape but remains directly face-to-face. This hill is bare but for a scattering of broken sticks and debris throughout, and there is a horizontal groove in the hill that goes the full length of the photograph, just above the pine trees. The sky is clear and light grey, and atop the hill, there is a thin dusting of white snow. The location is Mount Schofield, Sunny Corner State Forest, Wiradjuri Country.

 The photographs are presented in narrow pale, raw oak frames without a border.Cascading from the bottom edge of each frame are small, roughly poured drips in bronze. Each bronze sculpture is unique, resembling a small metallic waterfall that has frozen solid. The bronze has been partially polished to shine like gold, but also tarnished and rough in the crevices and folds. These bronze drips reference the exhibition’s title, ‘Crying’, as well as the brass-coloured tips on the wings of starlings—a bird commonly found in European woodlands, but an invasive and introduced species in Australia.