Floating Land: Water Culture
The theme for the most recent Floating Land festival— Water Culture—turned out to be more than apt for a Green Art event held in a state that acquired more than a passing acquaintance with large volumes of water over 2011. Floating Land has grown from its humble beginnings as an outdoor sculpture festival to become a large-scale ten day art event boasting an impressive line-up of international artists working in cutting-edge interdisciplinary forms, as well as a diverse range of local, community and indigenous practitioners whose practice runs the gamut from experimental performance to traditional craft. The festival’s aquatic theme formed the thread of connection between all the works, with some works made using water, others referring to fluid phenomena, and a few taking place within water.
Boreen Point at Lake Cootharaba served as the festival’s ‘base camp’. Along the shoreline of the lake, located deep in the UNESCO-listed Noosa biosphere, Sue Ryan (Cairns), Marion Gaemers (Townsville), Angela Torenbeek and Flora Jo Taylor (Moa Island) weaved and knotted a series of colourfully complex webs. These objects are products of the Ghost Nets project, a creative community art response to the problem of the phantom fishing nets that choke our oceans. The prevailing currents circulate lost and discarded nets which drift throughout the ocean depths, indiscriminately snaring and suffocating a host of marine creatures, including dugongs and turtles. On land, the remoteness of northern Australia limits access to plastic recycling plants, and consequently, the disposal of rubbish on beaches throughout Far North Queensland, the Torres Strait and the Northern Territory, places an enormous burden on local refuse systems, and the environment. This project involves the gleaning of these nets and their