13 Apr 2025

Interview With Jo Lane, Artist

Jo Lane

Australian

While I do make artwork reflecting environmental concerns, I am tending to concentrate on one thing I feel I can have a real effect on.

1. Tell us about your journey to becoming an environmental artist.

When I committed to pursuing a career as an artist, I commenced by studying botanical art funnily enough. My love and wonder of the plant world inspired this. I went on to study a Diploma in Visual Art, a Graduate Certificate in Visual Art and study to Master of Fine Art level but firmly in the Contemporary Art field and still practice in this genre – although love of the natural world never leaves me. As time has marched on one cannot be deaf to the climate and pollution crisis, we are in… it has been inevitable that artworks now reflect and respond to this catastrophe. As Nicholas Rowley, Honorary Associate Professor, Resources, Environment and Development at Australian National University states – there are 4 types of people – those that think nature is delicate and needs caring for, those that think it is robust and will recover, right down to those that believe it is there for human use and exploitation, and those that have a mix of these, I sit firmly in the first type, no question.

2. Tell us about your project BELLOW BELOW and the inspiration for undertaking this project.

The more the world is exposed to the notion that wetlands and gardens are in fact the kidneys of the world keeping life safe, let alone the value of the blue carbon sinking that wetlands provide, the better. I wanted to show it in a new way…BELLOW BELOW is a groundbreaking way to portray a very valuable environment, by hearing the sounds recorded with sensitive hydrophones beneath the muds, mangroves, wetlands and seashores of the waterway that is Western Port, in southern Australia.

I live near this extraordinary body of water in Victoria. It is a Ramsar Wetland of international significance (1982) and included in the Australia Migratory Bird Agreements with China, Japan and Republic of Korea (CAMBA, JAMBA and RoKAMBA respectively), and is one of only four Australian Biospheres under the global UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Despite all this the area is CONSTANTLY considered and approached as an industrial development site! So far, huge activist demonstrations, and I have been part of these, have saved it from a variety of proposed 'developments' over the last 2 decades. Because a small port was built there in 1972 (it should NEVER have been) many companies keep coming up with ideas to make the port larger, involving dredging, concreting and various other 'improvements' to 'use' it.

While I do make artwork reflecting environmental concerns, I am tending to concentrate on one thing I feel I can have a real effect on. I continue to think of ways to attempt to ensure that this beautiful, local, wetland is not destroyed. Interestingly, I think that one can have more effect on a small part of the world perhaps than getting frustrated trying to fix the whole world – so this is my contribution. It hangs on, by the will of scientists, activists and some ministers - but the work is not over to save it. BELLOW BELOW is one such work.

3. Tell us about your collaborators of your BELLOW BELOW project.

Last year I saw an article in our National Broadcaster’s (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the ABC) website about the work of Diana Chester titled ‘Deep listening scholar captures the sound of the sea along NSW coastline’. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-01/listening-nature-ocean-meditation-newsouthwales-newcastle/103779434

I researched and wrote to her, as I thought we could make a work together and that this would be an incredible way to ‘hear’ Western Port, hear the sounds of life that we cannot detect with our normal hearing, thereby adding one more reason to solicit protection for the place. Diana agreed, and came and see the area, and everything went from there. I pitched the idea to our local council, The Mornington Peninsula Shire Creative Grant stream, and secured funding to produce the audio/video artwork that is BELLOW BELOW. Diana also secured founding from the University of Sydney to contribute.

BELLOW BELOW, 2025, 13 minute soundscape/image scape about Western Port, Victoria, Australia

4. Tell us about where you have shown this project.

BELLOW BELOW was launched at a local arts festival ‘Flinders Fringe Festival’ in February this year, and I secured the use of an old Fisherman’s Hut by the jetty at the heads of the waterway to launch the film. Naturally it was a tiny venue, but TOTALLY perfect – one could hear the waves outside and yet watch the film inside the hut, the hut making the audio of the work so completely intense. One of the very special moments was when Jill West, an indigenous Australian stood up after it and said: “THAT’S what listening to country is about!’ We all cried. Our indigenous aborigines are so in tune with their county.

It was shown many times also during the festival in larger venues 😊.

The Port of Hastings, the local port in the wetlands of Western Port, asked if I would bring it to them to show the port staff. I welcomed the opportunity. This is the unheard world that is in their custody. I did so to a packed house - I sensed their unreserved appreciation, which is amazing.

Now it will be screened on Earth Day, with other videos, at Morton Memorial Library’s Earth Day Event at the Thompson-Mazzarella Park, in Rhinebeck, NY.

USA

1. New York

Queens Botanical Garden, NYC

National Lighthouse Museum, NYC

Putnam History Museum Cold Spring, NY

Morton Memorial Library Rhinecliff, NY and Thompson-Mazzarella Park

2. Maryland

Havre de Grace Maritime Museum

China

3. Hong Kong

CUHK Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Hong Kong

Australia

4. Melbourne

Climarte

5. Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island Museum

Figure 1 Showing BELLOW BELOW in a fisherman's shed by the wetland.

5. Can art save a planet?

Artist are extraordinary thinkers and can cut to the nub of a concept in an instant.

An artwork can distil a thesis, a complex philosophy, a tangled thought process, or a rational dichotomy down to a millisecond of intense experience. Art can shred the preconceptions of an issue and lay bare a bed from which to build inspiration. An artwork poses no threat only offers possibility… because it comes from a place of humanity.

Artists are highly educated people, in Australia almost three-quarters of artists, 73.5%, hold university qualifications, including one in ten who have completed a doctorate. [Artists as Workers: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia David Throsby and Katya Petetskaya, May 2024, the Australian Government]

In this form of communication, expression and creative thinking, art, if it is noted, can make a difference to the planet’s trajectory. It always has, since humans drew on cave walls. Right now, it can raise awareness, inspire action, offer creative solutions and enable/encourage a collective commitment to environmental sustainability.

In the book and documentary ‘Can Art Stop a Bullet’ about William Kelly’s work [Mark Street and Terry Cantwell 2021 F-Reel films – www.f-reel.com] there is a quote:

‘No, but it can stop the trigger being pulled’.

6. Anything else you would like to add.

There’s no time to lose, however one can promote consideration for the beautiful blue planet’s natural environment the better.

Figure 2 Showing BELLOW BELOW in a fisherman's shed by the wetland.

7. How can people reach you?

All my contact details are on my website: jolane.com or my instagram: @__jolane__

PHOTO OF JO: Jo Lane by Noa Smith Fletcher for exhibition titled 'Wild Hope: creating change'

Emphasising the concept that the land is a community, ‘Wild Hope’ explores the belief that when we love and respect the earth, it will nurture us in return. We are all fundamentally connected to the natural world, and our actions, no matter how small, have consequences for the planet.

Echoing the wisdom of Indigenous Australians, who have cultivated relationships of respect and reciprocity with plants, animals and ancestral spirits for tens of thousands of years; this way of moving through the world recognises that everything we need to survive is a gift, our food and water, our medicine.

'Wild Hope' speaks to the individual stories that showcase love of the land, and the people whose work highlights that we are not separate from nature but an integral part of it. The exhibition represents a small selection of the numerous people active in the natured community here on Bunurong Country, Mornington Peninsula.

This street art exhibition by documentary photographer Noa Smith Fletcher.