Several times over the last couple of years I have done the Freycinet Experience four-day trek along the Freycinet Peninsula to the 'invisible lodge' on Friendly Beaches. Each time I have visited Friendly Beaches my fondness for the place has grown, such that it is now one of my favourite places in the world. Friendly Beaches Lodge has been created and managed in such a way that it is invisible until you are right upon it. It provides a means of living with and experiencing nature, while having almost no impact on the environment.

So when Joan Masterman, the owner of Friendly Beaches Lodge, approached me to be involved with a project that would install environmental art installations in the native bush around the Lodge I was immediately interested. Any excuse to visit Friendly Beaches and any excuse to do another project in Tasmania after our Sculpture by the Sea exhibitions on the Tasman Peninsula in 1998 and 2001! It was a major personal disappointment not to be able to continue Sculpture by the Sea on the Tasman Peninsula but it was too hard for our then fledgling organization to keep the project going. With ephemeral art AT THE INVISIBLE LODGE it is great to be working in Tasmania again, albeit on a much more intimate scale.

In developing the project our four goals were to provide guests with a tour of the East Coast of Tasmania; a behind-the-scenes look at some of the important private and public galleries in the state, and a leisurely and quiet experience of Friendly Beaches. Finally we aimed to give artists the opportunity to install environmental installations for guests to enjoy. In doing this we have received advice from Bridget Arkiess and Dick Bett on the appropriate Tasmanian artists whom we could invite to participate. These artists have been joined by Sasha Reid from Sydney who doubles as our project manager.

As the artists selected actually live in four different states much flexibility from everyone involved was required, as it was always going to be impossible to have all the artists together at the one time for site meetings. Along the way some of the artists have pushed our original concept of ephemeral art to expand our initial definition. This has been an interesting process and I am sure will result in a few dinnertime debates. What has been a much bigger challenge has been the recent major bush fire, but, by the time we all arrive, hopefully the burnt land will be showing its first signs of recovery.

It is hard to believe that this brutal process is an integral part of the life cycle of the Australian bush. Yet with the threat of the fire behind us we are all very privileged to be able to see the process up close although along the way some of the artists needed to change their sites and to modify their works accordingly. As close as ephemeral art AT THE INVISIBLE LODGE is to nature, we never thought it would be so dramatically close.

I would like to thank Joan and George Masterman for their commitment to the environment; the curators, Bridget Arkless and Dick Bett; and, most importantly, the artists for their inspired creations.

please click here to go view ephemeral art

david HANDLEY
Adviser & Curator, ephemeral art AT THE INVISIBLE LODGE
Director, Sculpture by the Sea