Mangroves from the Water curator, team leader and artist Zahidah Zeytoun Millie runs a podcast called Masainakum Masoonah – an Arabic saying meaning “Good evening to you, Good evening to us”
Zahidah in her radio studio at Pulse FM, Geelong Australia
In this week’s episode, Zahidah chats to Jacqui Dreessens from their kayaks in Barwon Heads!
Jacqui is a dancer/choreographer participating with a much anticipated performance at the Mangroves from the Water exhibition, 26th July in Geelong.
We are super proud to announce our fellow Mangrove from the Water team member Alexis Gambis is achieving tremendous success in his filmmaking career.
Alexis Gambis in action as director
Son of Monarchs is a film written and directed by Alexis Gambis. It depicts a personal and spiritual journey of a Mexican biologist who returns to his hometown in the majestic monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán, Mexico.
Son of Monarchs won the New American Cinema Grand Jury Award at the 2021 Seattle International Film Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Feature 2021 Feature Film Prize Winner at the Sundance Film Festival 2021.
You can read more about the film, its accolades and its screening schedule here: sonofmonarchs.com
Alexis will be showing his movie Guardian of the Mangrove at the Mangroves from the Water exhibition at Gordon Gallery, Geelong from 26 July – 8 August. You can read more about this movie here.
We are so happy to have Kerrie Taylor as the latest artist to join our team at Mangroves from the Water.
Kerrie shared these work- in- progress photos while doing research in the mangroves of the Darwin beaches.
She travels there every year from Victoria for further research on pneumatophores and mangroves.
What is a pneumatophore you might ask?:
noun, plural: pneumatophores. (botany) A specialized aerial root, such as in certain mangrove species, that stick up out of the soil and covered with many lenticels for gaseous exchange. (zoology) The air sac or float in certain siphonophores. Supplement. In botany, pneumatophores are a type of aerial root.
I must admit myself, these aerial roots astounded me at my first sight of them in the Umm Al Quwain mangroves (UAE). It is hard not to get obsessed over them.
Here is a sneak peek at the textile-based artworks by Kerrie Taylor inspired by the mangroves
Helen Martin gives us a glimpse into her studio with her work in progress. She explains her mediums – which includes homemade beeswax- and the inspiration she draws from the mangroves from various sites in Australia. She particularly appreciates the inter-tidal moments when you can spot all the little creatures roaming their habitat.
Please enjoy the video and pass by the Mangroves from the Water exhibition to view her work!
In the build up to our upcoming exhibition (26 July!), we check in with some of our participating artists on how they are preparing their works.
This story from Nicola Cerini about her inspiration and work process is particularly enjoyable:
— “The work was inspired by a couple of fun kayaking trips through the Mangroves at Barwon Heads in Victoria with all the artists in 2019 and 2020 arranged by the curator Zahidah. Despite getting pretty wet in my leaky kid-size kayak on my first trip I went back for more. On the next trip in a grown-up sized kayak I managed to take lots of photos which helped me decide how I wanted to represent what I’d seen. It’s such a unique ecosystem down there in the Mangroves. I had no idea the Barwon Heads Mangroves were there until I became involved in this project. In my early twenties I spent some time on Lizard Island in far north Queensland and also on the mainland and was fascinated by these murky mysterious landscapes that came and went with the tide. I’d always associated Mangroves with a tropical climate so it was exciting to find that we had our own cold climate Mangroves very close to home.
I was drawn to the various textures and layers from the water, up through the muddy root systems that almost reached the low lying branches of the large Mangrove trees. There were beautiful light spaces filtering through the branches often creating silhouettes and bands of horizontal colours in the distance representing the sky and banks of green brackish friendly plants. The contrast of the solid ancient Mangrove trunks against the delicate leaf and flower silhouettes was striking. Looking into these landscapes was like exploring a new world, exciting!
My work will be printed on linen and there will be two pieces, both 1.4 x 2m.–
A photo of the mangroves taken by Nicola from her kayakHere is a sneak peek of a close up detail of one of Nicola’s artworks inspired by the mangroves which she will present at the Mangroves from the Water exhibition
Here is a short video by Nicola in her studio..
Mangroves from the Water opens on 26 July 2021, Gordon Gallery, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Geraldine Chansard’s sculpture Woman from the Mangroves is the catalyst for the creation of the video project The girl who fell in love with the mangroves.
A crowdfunding campaign has been created in aide of the logistics involved for Geraldine to participate in the Mangroves from the Water touring exhibition in Australia this year.
The girl who fell in love with the mangroves , is a tale taken from real events. Through a conversation with Pauline Dupin, inspired the writing of a moving tale. Coming from France to the Emirates (RAK- UAQ) they had gathered a team of local participants to the play the roles of the girl, the fisherman and the robber…
You will have to wait for the final product to find out what happens!
The project to make a video was born with the director Pauline Dupin who grew up like Geraldine in Beauce .
To participate in the crowdfunding and for more information on Geraldine and this project, please visit:
Mangroves from the Water planted a seed during 2014 -2017 through their touring exhibition in the UAE and the 2017 Mangroves Festival. We are very happy to see that the mangrove seed we planted in the UAE has turned into a tree.
See this article in The National newspaper about the importance of the mangroves and how it will take centre stage during the UAE National Day celebrations
Mangroves from the Water (MFTW) 