ABSTRACT
The transformative processes involved in creating visual art explores the threads between the past and present, memory and place to convey a sense of loss, myths and silences from a disturbed and degraded environment. Cultural geographer Jane Jacobs suggests that one need to acknowledge a sense of place that is built around fractured vectors of connection and histories of disconnection. Station records from Arthur Bailey's time as manager of Yardea have not been recovered, so there are few insights available into the people and daily life on the station. Drawing on concepts of memory as something equivocal and discontinuous, he apprehended Yardea as a place of broken memories. Thus his research help create other forms of awareness and insights to help us deal with the social and environmental uncertainties facing us in this moment. 'Naturally Disturbed' aimed to recast the past in its complexity by evoking the strangeness of colonial settlers inhabiting a strange land.
