Trin Warren Tam-boore Wetlands 2011

Summary

Alexis Beckett created ‘Trin Warren Tam-boore Wetlands’ for ‘Crepuscular’, an exhibition curated by John Kean and held at the City Gallery between May and July 2011. It was one of several exhibited artworks that illustrated and interpreted Melbourne’s crepuscular fauna and the microenvironments that support such species. Beckett’s series of three silk-screened glass domes represents the Trin Warren Tam-boore Wetlands (Bellbird waterhole) of its title, located in Royal Park, in Melbourne’s inner north-west. This five-hectare urban wetland, created by the City of Melbourne in 2006, has been designed to treat stormwater run-off from surrounding suburbs through natural biological processes, to deliver recycled water for use in parks, and, importantly, to provide habitat for wildlife. While faunal species can be observed here during the day, this well-conceived microenvironment comes alive as day gives way to night. An illustrator and printmaker, Beckett is primarily driven in her practice by her interests in natural history, the environment and museum collections, aspects that are all evident in this artwork. The scenes shown across the series of domes indicate the interplay between urban and natural environments in the creation of this valuable city wetland, with architectural features evident behind verdant natural landscapes. The silhouetted scenes in silk-screened baked decal and the spherical containment of each scene (not unlike museum vitrines) point to the particular crepuscular world evoked in this exhibition.