Katrin Koenning

Untitled from Lake Mountain, 2012

In our capitalist pursuit we thought we found progress, but in that, things got lost forever. Now the urgency to halter manifests, knowing what is lost can’t resurrect. Our legacy is undeniably carved into everything we’ve touched; water, land, air. According to predictions measuring the effects of global warming, Australia counts among one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Increasingly extreme weather conditions threaten to impact destructively on the environment, biodiversity, infrastructure and community.

During the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires considerable damage was caused at Lake Mountain, a popular winter destination 120 km out of Melbourne, Australia, changing the site forever. Lake Mountain is a long-term study of this scarred and transitioning Australian landscape.

Much of my practice is an inquiry into our physical and emotional connection to place and our relationship to that which surrounds us. At their core, my methodology and vernacular rotate around the idea of returning to things; I’ve held this mountain’s breath for six years. It’s through immersion that I can be part of a land. The return enables me to know, the knowing makes me love, the loving authors me.