Flocking Together – Lobethal South Australia

The digital artwork was projected onto the walls of Mill Square, transforming it into a meditation and gathering place where local community were able to reflect on the past two years, on the return of our wildlife and in particular the birds, which were noticeably absent in the early days after the fire.

Local artist Anne griffiths facilitated over 400 young people to participate in the project by creating beautiful artworks of birds and their environment.  Then Local Poet Belinda Broughton created a spoken word piece in response to these artworks. These were combined into a beautiful and vibrant artwork by Andy Petrusevics, Susanne Wegener and Luke Zero Shaw.

Anne Griffiths – project collaborator in Lobethal says:

“Flocking together is a project that was initiated by Fabrik Arts as part of their Bushfire Recovery Programme in 2020.

Lobethal and the surrounding areas of Woodside and Lenswood were impacted by the December 2019 Bushfires with so many families being devastated by the loss of homes, property and their natural environment.

Bushland Park on the outskirts of Lobethal has always been a treasure, loved by our community and integral to learning across our schools. Used by schools and kindies for nature education and as an art retreat for older students from Lobethal and Woodside. Large areas of the park were lost in the fires and we were heartbroken.

Returning home after the fire the silence was noticeable and we waited hopefully for the bird sounds.  In the blackened bushland park, volunteers hopefully left out feed for the native animals who relied on the park and slowly signs of life reappeared. As the weeks progressed the burnt trees foliage began to regrow and the birds returned, even the smallest of the wrens. Nature heals and seeing this gave so many of us hope that we too would heal and grow too.

I cannot express enough the value of creative recovery in this process. The act of creating allows us time to process our thoughts and reflect on that which is important to us. The positive outcomes of such a difficult experience have created a caring, courageous community rebuilding together.

Our children are the ones that hold our future and through this experience they have grown more aware and more protective of the beauty of our Adelaide Hills environment. Seeing the birds return and flourish and the abundance of regrowth is a message of hope for the future.

I am sure that the sentiments of our children, their resilience and courage through this time shows in their beautiful artwork.”

• Anne Griffiths Local creative collaborator and facilitator
• Belinda Broughton Spoken word writer and narrator
• Andy Petrusevics Lead artist, Animation, Audio production, Final Compositor
• Susanne Wegener Animation
• Zero (Luke) Shaw Audio production, projection mapping
• Cindi Drennan Creative producer
• Verity Brookes Creative producer
• Craig Laurendet Installation Architect
• Mark Leacy Technical Department Manager
• Casey Welch Technical Support
• Sam Chamberlain Technical Support