Sensed Living Belonging
Anja Anders
Master of Architecture | University of Queensland
“My understanding of HOME is life experienced through layers of my senses. Intrinsically, elements of Yuggera COUNTRY - weather, shadows, smells, sounds - evoke my sense.”
MATERIALS: timber
Artist Statement
By understanding Yuggera COUNTRY I’ve affirmed my feelings of HOME.
HOME is an all-encompassing memory that defines my identity and involves more than family. It is multi-sensory. Home is not merely thoughts or recollections. I also feel HOME through my senses.
In my native language, sense is Zweideutigkeit (German meaning for double entendre). It describes my sense of self and senses felt. Layers of my senses are interwoven with layers of Yuggera COUNTRY.
To embody HOME and COUNTRY is to represent these sensory layers. The process of making the Sensed Living Belonging using timber, creek water and fire elements of Yuggera COUNTRY, manifest my feelings of HOME. The treatment of timber reflects a story through its layers, analogous with emotions felt. Fixed, soaked, burned, brushed, and sanded timber reveal the layers and this story.
This process is symbolic of emotions attributed to HOME (connection, love, gratitude and gemütlichkeit) and my individual growth shaping my feelings of HOME.
Synopsis
My Sensed Living Belonging explores senses of HOME and Yuggera COUNTRY through layers. The layered approach represents my multifaceted emotions of growth, process, form and meaning.
Understanding my HOME and my German heritage has meant unpacking the layers that define who I am and what makes me feel a sense of belonging. I chose to manifest my feelings through sensorial effects of Yuggera COUNTRY.
Sensed Living Belonging represents the manifolds of my connections to Yuggera COUNTRY. Connection to my German heritage and ancestors, identity, and German language. Schichten can be translated to layers and Geschichten means stories. By treating the timber in a variety of ways, a story is created and through burning, brushing and sanding, my story is revealed alongside the layers it’s created.
The lighter layers represent my foundation of HOME: my childhood and my Australian and German heritage. Soaked in water, these layers symbolise emotionally formative years such as adolescence and early years of adulthood. Emblematic as emotions, the water also represents my intimate connection occupying spaces along water COUNTRY. Followed by dryer layers that represent emotional stability, formed throughout adulthood. The composite object is burned as a whole, the flame and the charcoal guides the shape of these layers. Fire recalls regenerative practices on bushlands we occupy. They are burnt as a relational fire management and maintenance forming COUNTRY.
It is symbolic of management and growth that has occurred forming my sense of self and feeling of HOME. By sanding these layers back, the flame of growth metaphor is unveiled revealing the effect it has in shaping my HOME. The 25 layers, represent years of growth and varying degrees of smooth and fluid connections. The layers indicate my sensed concept of HOME, symbolically capturing years and interactions.
