Brett Piva - Epitomes shared from a V Bottom Tinnie

Epitomes Shared from a V Bottom Tinnie is a short summary of my lifelong admiration and great respect for Australia’s second longest river. An homage to the advice, lessons, and requirements for the rivers future, shared by various qualities of character within long days spent fishing from a busted up aluminium boat.

In June 2021, I began a one-month personal artist residency on the Murrumbidgee River from its beginning to its end. Starting where it arises within the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. Through strong boulder driven currents bending north within the Australian Capital Territory. Along calmer waters to where it meets the Murray far west on the borders of Victoria. Every night of the residency I camped beside the river with my van equipped as both mobile artist studio and home. An overwhelming and successful journey to learn more of the rivers needs and its unnatural disruptions.

My earlier connections with the Murrumbidgee were predominantly based on nostalgic, loving memory. Now my connection is very different. I’ve witnessed the river’s decline and its change being so dramatic between annual visits. Unnatural frequent flooding and water closures has caused decline in fish breeding grounds, slumping banks, blue green algae, foreign weed growth and more. This is just the beginning before following the severe threat faced by its neighbouring rivers in The Murray Darling Basin.

This series forms a relationship between the natural and manufactured, with each piece sharing an organic inclusion from the environment. Natural pigments, fallen bark, branches, sap, clay, river water and snow have been respectfully collected with care and used within each piece. The fragility of the river is present within the glass that is squeezed between the more robust material of concrete and steel. A literal connection to the Murrumbidgee River’s vast landscape.

This body of work found its origins in an earlier artist residency undertaken in Japan in 2020, which later translated into home territory. The deliberate and meticulous approach I followed on that trip continued to develop during a recent 2023 artist residency in Japan. Each work has been created to engage new audiences to consider important dialogue around the environmental degradation and practices that are affecting the Murrumbidgee River that I hold so close to my heart.