PENELOPE AITKEN

Friends Indeed: Plenty River Joy Project was an outdoor installation by artists Anna Farago and Penelope Aitken, made to celebrate the resumption of activities for the Friends of Plenty River (FoPR) revegetation group following nine months of COVID-19 shutdown.

The FoRP members wore masks featuring local flowers and birds designed and made by the artists using abstracted imagery of local flora and fauna. Other works included fabric tree guards, bunting and hanging textiles. Many works included natural dyes from local plants and earth from the site. The event also celebrated the 25 years FoPR has weeded, planted and tended the Yallambie Park area on the Plenty River, north east of Melbourne.

The artists and FoPR acknowledge the long and important history of this specific bend in the Plenty River, which was a significant meeting ground for the Wurundjeri-wilun families of the Kulin Nation.

Penelope Aitken’s work is informed by a kind of atheistic animism. Restoration, Rehabilitation, Revegetation and Regeneration are the guiding principles for biodiversity protection among friends groups such as FoPR. Penelope adds ‘Reincarnation’ to this list, to recognise the spiritual soul of compost, the unseen forces that create life and the making of new things from old matter. In Friends Indeed: Plenty River Joy Project Penelope’s work includes local eucalyptus, acacia and olearia flowers printed onto naturally dyed fabric and made into face masks (for non-verbal communication) and plant guards (to protect the new growth).

Anna Farago has lived in the suburb of Montmorency since 2013 but only visited the nearby Plenty River Trail for the first time during lockdown. Her late husband, Adrian Miles, who died suddenly in 2018, was an avid bird watcher and bike rider who thoroughly explored local bike paths and bushland. In Friends Indeed: Plenty River Joy Project Anna uses the shapes and colours from two birds, the Eastern Spinebill and Spotted Pardolote in designs for face masks. A memory cloth hung as a banner from a tree central to the installation and was made using naturally dyed eucalyptus leaves from the garden of the family home, and Adrian’s floral and faded shirts.

Both artists collaborated to make celebratory bunting, hung to thank the FoPR volunteers, and to mark FoPR’s inception on 13 December 1995. The specific birds and flowers were chosen from a list the members suggested, as those that they would like to see more of. It is hoped over time the revegetation activities along the trail will restore natural habitat for all to enjoy.

Friends Indeed was supported with funding from Banyule Council’s Arts and Culture Programs and by the Banyule Council Environment team.