A Conversation from the Swamp Residencies with Dr Cheryle Yin Lo

At Nauti Studios we love all things creative, all things nature, and all things sustainability.

Produced in association with the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, the year long project affectionately named the Swamp Residencies brings together artists, ecologists and bush regeneration experts for ‘creative swamp research’ in  Gundungarra and Dharag country. Exhibited at Articulate Project Space Immersion: Conversations from the Swamp Residencies presents works by the twelve participating artists including Dr Cheryle Yin Lo, an interdisciplinary artist and regular workshop facilitator at Nauti Studios in Hazelbrook. Soon after opening in late August I spoke with Cheryle about their experience.

Cheryle Yin Lo, Below The Surface and Through the Ripples, 2023. Digital prints on overlays and acrylic disks in small wooden stands.

Cheryle Yin Lo, Below The Surface and Through the Ripples, 2023. Digital prints on overlays and acrylic disks in small wooden stands.

“I used to work with the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute. I was the first Cultural Development worker when the Blue Mountains World Heritage started in 2006 in Katoomba. I did my doctorate with them, so my interest is actually in the way community arts can be used for stimulating community participation and environmental stewardship. This is an experiment for me as an artist to see how we can share with the general community more about the complexity of the swamp and their role.”

“The driving force for the exhibition came from the artists, there were a few of us who also worked together in the Bush Recovery Project last year. We enjoyed working together and someone came up with the idea of swamps and how important they are in our location as a world heritage area. But also they’re importance as a filter for healthy water systems for drinking and our sense of living.”

Cheryle Yin Lo, Deep Below the Surface, 2023.
Photomedia and digital prints on hahnemuhle paper.

Up close with Cheryle Yin Lo’s, Deep Below the Surface, 2023.
Photomedia and digital prints on hahnemuhle paper.

“Because some of the artists are from the Upper Mountains and I live in Hazelbrook, I really wanted to concentrate on the mid-mountains in particular. It was a good introduction because I've lived there for nearly 20 years and I hadn't really been to any swamps. We had been working closely with some of the bush care officers from the Blue Mountains City Council. I spent time with the Rocklea Swampcare, Bushcare Blue Mountains Group and my work is based on my experience with them, my observations, experience [...] and what I learnt.”

The wonderful Dr Cheryle Yin Lo!

“My artwork Below The Surface and Through the Ripples reflect my observations: how the swamp is made up of so many different layers of natural debris and when we entered the swamps we had to actually clear some of the weeds. They’re like tubers, they just kept going and going. You feel overwhelmed. That’s what my digital prints are about. Some of the plants and weeds you find there and how they’ve proliferated, they’re in abundance. You try to intervene, to control a certain area to make sure that they don’t stop the flow and filtration of the water. The work is about our relationship with the physical environment as humans and understanding that basic principle.”

Scott Marr, Sentimental Ghosts, 2023.

“When I spoke to the bushkeeper who’d been going for over a decade to one site to clear it, they said it’s more about intervening with the disruptors and persisters, they didn’t like to say “we’re gonna kill the weeds”. It was nice to see the way they work with and understand nature. To manage it rather than controlling it, rather than clearing it in a militant way. There’s sophistication and understanding, when you know how to do it sensitively in that environment. Their view of the world is inspiring. It was interesting talking to Emma Magenta about it. We can get angry as artists, to polarise and be binary, but she said she wanted to come from a very different kind of place. It’s like uncovering the layers of an onion, uncovering knowledge, while always being curious about learning more. [...] It’s about combined knowledge making, how we hold space to understand other people's perspectives or the way that other people interact with spaces.”

Wendy Tsai, Iron Oxidizing Bacteria #1, 2023.

I asked Cheryle about her thoughts on the role of the artist and she told me:

“I talked about disruptors and sometimes we’re not screaming and shouting with placards but we might be the quiet disruptors. But even as a quiet disruptor you want to have impact and you want to be effective. That’s always the challenge of the artist. We feel like we have a message to share, but whether that actually translates to the viewer is something that you need to be exploring as a concept generally. How much can you share? How much can you connect people, even on a very small point in which they shift their thinking or their actions? How do you make them feel more curious?”

Ann Niddrie, Glimpses of an upland swamp, Blackheath, 2023.

Immersion: Conversations from the Swamp Residencies was exhibited at Articulate Project Space featuring Ann Niddrie, Bryden Williams, Caroline Ginunis, Chia Moan, Emma Magenta, Fiona Vaughan, Freedom Wilson, Jon Flood, Justin Morrissey, Kate Reid, Rani Brown, Scott Marr, Wendy Tsai, Jon Macleod, Anne Campbell and was co-curated by Freedom Wilson and Justin Morrissey. 

For more information about Creative Traveller workshops held by Cheryle Yin Lo
click here.

To hold your creative workshops at Nauti Studios like Cheryle,
get in touch with the Nauti team here.

Freedom Wilson, Elevated Swamp Regrowth beside the Diamond Falls, 2023.