Nature Morte 2, 2016, 762 x 572 mm, archival digital print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (Ed of 3)

Nature Morte 1, 2016, 762 x 517 mm,  archival digital print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (Ed of 3)

The Jam Factory invited eight South Australian artists to create new works in response to a  fire that in 2014 ripped through Eden Valley devastating large portions of the Angas’ property Hutton Vale Farm.  The fallen and extensively damaged Blue and River Red gums, some of which were 500 years old, signified more than ‘just’ the loss of trees.  Silent witnesses to an age of events, these majestic eucalypts were an integral part of the local eco system, a staple of the rolling landscape, and a part of history.

Nature Morte is a series of photographs taken from climbing inside the burnt out trees.  In this site specific work she looks at the contradictions of fire: in the domestic it is something tamed, romantic, of warmth, comfort and survival.  In nature, fire can be both destructive and regenerative: a powerful force that cannot be tamed by humans.  Kneebone has placed traditional instruments for the management of the domestic fire into the hollows.  In this new context, she references the cyclic nature of fire and its capacity for regeneration. ‘We are reminded’ Kneebone says ‘that these burnt trees are not so much dead, but have now become new habitats for birds and ground-dwelling animals.’