Written Commission: Wind Theory
Lauren Carroll Harris

Throughout art history, artists have found inspiration in the sun, the water and the mountains, and light and colour. But what of the borderlessness of a less-explored natural element: the wind? Wind is everywhere and nowhere. It crosses territorial zones and can’t be contained, seen or photographed directly. It’s more than air in motion; without its five major wind zones, most of Earth would be uninhabitable and the oceans would have no currents. From the updrafts supporting the wedge-tailed eagle to the skies above Darug and Gadigal lands, this audiovisual essay references commissioned works in BLEED’s Echo program, cinema history and literature to form a new digital collage of the wind above the Yass Valley, a grasslands ecosystem, in a stage of post-drought growth in August 2022.

At first the planets were cold and still

Three elongated arches float on the background. Each arch acts as a window framing soft, fluffy white clouds on a blue sky background

Now, all we can ever see is its effects

Captured from a static side on angle, tall brown grassy and straw-like weeds are blown furiously in all directions, making soothing motions and patterns when moved by the wind. White text appears on top of the gif that says ‘It has strange properties’

Without form, without visibility

Captured from a slowly panning side on angle, green weedy grass spotted with dainty, florescent purple flowers standing atop tall stems and a sea of tall straw like weeds with fluffy beige tops, sway gracefully as they are blow by a gentle breeze. White text appears on top of the gif that says ‘Carrying energy and gasses, bacteria and information across time zones’

Many of its movements are lateral, horizontal, layered

Captured from a static birds eye point of view, tall brown grassy and straw-like weeds are blown furiously in all directions, making soothing motions and patterns when moved by the wind. White text appears on top of the gif that says ‘Here, closest to earth, it is densest. It delivers spiders and birds in flight’

Up there, a hitchhiking bird of prey coasts on its updraft for up to ninety minutes at a time, reaching altitudes of higher than two kilometres and beating it into shape with its wind. The true eagle spots its prey and swoops

A horizon between a blue sky spotted with white fluffy clouds, and a sea of brown, weedy grass swaying towards the horizon in the wind. White text appears on top of the gif that says ‘Outside the Intertropical Convergence Zone, it always travels...’

…in trade belts, prevailing westerlies, polar easterlies, in land and sea breezes, in mountain and valley breezes, in Hadley cells near the equator and Ferrel cells in the mid-latitudes

A slowly panning moving image in black and white of a forest with some medium height leafy shrubs and tall, skinny trees with leaves gently swaying to the left side of the image as they blow in the wind. A static image appears on top of the black and white moving image in the centre of the screen, with an orange sunset of fluffy clouds and a pink glowing arch in the centre of the image.

Above, these renaissance skies, with their floating cloud palettes, empathise with you.

“Air masses moving from land out over the ocean start with average concentrations of around 500 bacteria per cubic meter…”

“Clouds are probably the greatest concentrators of airborne micro-life…”

“The immediate source of many potential pathogens lies in the air and on high-level winds. it seems that nothing anywhere is immune from seeding by the wind.”

Static shot of a black and white moving image of a rural field. In the foreground of the image is some bushy shrubs which then continue onto a tall grassy field in which a man stands wearing a suit and holding a briefcase with some power lines overhead. In the background of the image are some hills with trees atop. All of the trees, bushes and grass are blown one by one like a Mexican Wave towards the front of the time as they are touched by a gust of wind. An image of a blue and green wind map of the bottom half of Australia and its surrounding seas appears on top of the black and white image, showing the wind patterns around Australia.

But who has seen it? Now, we know a mass movement, an invisible breath that leaves the rest of us living

 

References and clips

Dean Cross, you can never touch your shadow, 2022

EarthWindMap, https://classic.nullschool.net captured on August 23, over Yass Valley

Andrei Tarkovosky, The Mirror, 1975

Lyall Watson, Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind, 1984

Jodie Whalen, Endless Blue Edge, 2022

 

Download the text only transcript here

Credits
  • Writer - Lauren Carroll Harris
  • Wind Theory is commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of BLEED 2022.

    BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital) was conceived by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and the City of Melbourne through Arts House. BLEED 2022 is produced and presented by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and the City of Melbourne through Arts House, Taipei Performing Arts Center and Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei.  BLEED has been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and Cultural Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney.
Acknowledgement of Country
Arts House, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Taipei Performing Arts Center, and Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands we work on, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Dharawal, and Ketagalan peoples. We extend our respects to their Elders past, present and future while respecting the vast Traditional Owners Nations our digital platforms reach. We extend this acknowledgment to Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Austronesian artists, audiences and communities, and First Nations peoples globally.
墨爾本藝術之家、坎貝爾敦藝術中心、臺北表演藝術中心及台北當代藝術館向我們土地上的第一民族暨傳統所有人致上敬意，包括烏倫杰里族（Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung）、塔爾瓦斯族（Dharawal）、凱達格蘭族（Ketagalan）及其眾支系。因著BLEED數位介面所將廣泛觸及的各種傳統民族與土地， 我們尊榮各地過去、現在及未來的祖先與耆老。我們更將這份對台灣與澳洲原住民族、托雷斯海峽群島民族及南島民族的藝術家、觀眾與社群的致意延展至全球各傳統領地與第一民族。