Lightscape

Lionshead Tree, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Photograph by Matthew Stanton for Wilderness Journal to accompany a story by Sophie Cunningham.

Artists: Lewis Wandin Bursill, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung

“These are the lines of Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country and waterways. My inspiration for this work comes from carvings created by my uncle, William Barak (beruk). As a wood carver and pyrographer, I am keeping culture, stories and designs alive, from the past to the present.” – Lewis Wandin Bursill

Lewis Wandin-Bursill is a proud young Wurundjeri artist of the Woi-wurrung language group. He has always lived on Country in Healesville.

As an emerging artist Lewis’ recent works have been informed by his interest in the traditional ways of finding food and the implements that we used in this pursuit. Wood-carving has always been an integral part of Aboriginal culture and Lewis has been gifted the knowledge of his Ancestors.

Lewis’ wood burning designs (pyrography) reference his relationship with his four times great Uncle William Barak, exploring symmetry and the natural lines of nature.

For Lightscape, Lines of Country has been updated and reimagined using projection and fire. The trees illuminated with the artwork are two of the Gardens’ mighty, pre-colonial River Red Gums (be-als). By the lake’s edge is the Lionshead Tree with its distinctive lion-like burr, and further along is the Separation Tree; significant to local Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people long before it marked the separation of Victoria from the colony of New South Wales. On the lawn below, Wandin-Bursill’s design is also depicted as part of a fire garden.