1. The Squatters Residency: from gang gangs to nuclear

The most I’ve ever seen together - thirty plus gang gang cockatoos farewelled me before I left home.  And here blue-sky blossom is blowing in the warm winds.  It’s Spring and it is the first day of my residency at The Squatters at The Foundations, in Portland on Wiradjuri land, central west NSW. Living only half an hour away, I have driven the road here many times, most recently with my youngest to his things and his friend living here.  On this journey, my mind was taken back to my arrival at my camac residency at Marnay-sur-Seine in France.  We drove the meandering roads through forests, over hills and down dales edging closer and closer to the imposing nuclear power plant vista.  I felt my anxiety swell in the pit of my stomach. The view on my drive here seemed reminiscent, though this time it is Mount Piper coal powered station popping in and out of the vista. Residents I met there in Marnay-sur-Seine told me of their protests pre the nuclear plant and later of halting a chemical plant development near their homes. Here the opposition government has announced their proposal for Mount Piper to be one of seven coal power stations to transition to nuclear power plants. In Marnay-sur-Seine (and many of France’s villages, towns and cities), they live with the first Wednesday of the month midday civil defence siren. It is a practice drill, month in, month out, year in year out.  With France’s 56 operable nuclear reactors, (the country with the second most reactors) there are about 4500 sirens placed throughout their country.  It’s their norm. 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_siren#:~:text=It%20consists%20of%20about%204%2C500,8%20port%20single%20tone%20siren.
 
Here, I hear just the creaking of the floorboards, a critter in the roof and the occasional woof of a town pooch, with today’s roaring winds drowning out all else.  I’ve settled in straight away.  It’s my first solo residency venture.  All others have involved other artists doing their own things beside me.  I have loved them (the residencies and the people), but I am also totally up for and eager to be doing this one solo. Inside The Squatters, my charcoal drawings by night have begun.