BONE CIRCLE / FIRE

Bone circle

Bone circle / fire

Bone circle / fire

Bone circle / fire (4 years later)

Bone circle / fire (4 years later) – detail

Bone circle / fire (7 years later)

Bone Circle/Bone Fire was formed through a deep, responsive engagement with the arid landscape of western New South Wales. The work was inspired by the prolonged drought and the absence of water in the arid zone, where the land bears the weight of long dry spells and the lives of animals are shaped by waters scarcity. The work reflects on how water, had it been present, would shape the landscape—moving seed and soil through its contours—and how fire plays a vital role in ensuring biodiversity and ecological renewal in these stressed environments.

In creating the work I allowed the site and materials to guide me. I swept the fine, loose sand from the shallow depression, exposing the cracked clay beneath—a quiet gesture that revealed the dryness of the land. Into this cleared space, I arranged the bones in a circular formation, echoing the imagined path of water had it ever flowed—gathering debris, carrying seed and silt, leaving remnants at the edges as it evaporated. As night fell, I built a central cairn of bone over an unlit fire, its form glowing pale under the full moon. When lit, the fire brought the work to life—flickering light, shifting shadows, and a quiet energy stirred by the breeze.

In the years that followed the works creation the form retrogressed back into the landscape. In a lovely sense of reciprocity with the space, the flow of water and its movement of soil and seed that had inspired the original creative interaction were the primary forces that drove the retrogression of the form.