"haunting installation" - Linger, 2013


Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) 

"The focus of Mapping Memory, is an exhibition curated around the concept of where we locate our memories, how these are passed on or preserved, how our personal and collective cultural identities are informed by histories encapsulated in various sites or objects, and how they shape our present and future.  In particular, this exhibition regards the significance of geographical, architectural, spiritual, cultural, material and imaginary sites where these personal and collective memories may reside.  The intention is not one of sentimentality or nostalgia but to recognise pathways to understanding our identities.  As Pierre Nora writes in Realms of Memory (1984), “the need for memory is the need for history”. The artists in Mapping Memory draw attention to various material or spatial realms in which memory can be projected and embodied...

Kath Fries’ haunting installation also emphasises the environment as its point of departure. Linger, which is made from vertical roots from a fig tree adjacent to the Incinerator, contemplates how memories are deeply ‘rooted’ within a particular locale.  Their grasp and permeation into an area is enduring and the land becomes a storehouse of memory; a layered document of tangible and intangible history.

...Within a subject that is vast, layered, disputed, complex and changing, Mapping Memory displays a dedicated focus.  The exhibition demonstrates the various ways in which memory is so closely linked to objects and sites that in turn immediately affects us as individuals, cultures and societies, and directly influence the formation and understanding of our personal and collective identities."

(Venita Poblocki, Curator, extracts from Mapping Memory catalogue)


Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
View looking down through studio windows above the gallery. 

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm 

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm 

Linger is currently being exhibited in Mapping Memory, a group exhibition curated by Venita Poblocki at the Willoughby Incinerator Art Space; alongside works by Cyrus Tang, Tessa Zettel & Karl Khoe (Makeshift), Thea Weiss, Tim Bruniges & Sarah Mosca, Megan Cope and Nick Fintan. 

'Linger' - installation for Mapping Memory, at the Incinerator Art Space

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm 

Linger explores metaphors of searching for a sense of belonging and the fragility of childhood memories. Aerial roots (collected from a fig tree growing outside the gallery) hang overhead entangled with soil, debris and twine. Suspended in the middle is a simple homemade swing - a transparent plank, like a window or portal into one's memory. The Incinerator was initially used to combust suburban waste, now a contemporary art space the building still sits partly underground and partly hanging off the side of a steep hill; situated within this structure Linger amplifies the site's atmosphere of transience, dislocation and impermanence.

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

"... memory is a limitless subject in art and culture itself, being intrinsic to its very materialisation." (Ian Farr)


Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
(detail view) total dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm

Kath Fries, Linger, 2013, Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
dimensions approximately 540x400x220cm


Linger is currently being exhibited in Mapping Memory, a group exhibition curated by Venita Poblocki at the Willoughby Incinerator Art Space; alongside works by Cyrus Tang, Tessa Zettel & Karl Khoe (Makeshift), Thea Weiss, Tim Bruniges & Sarah Mosca, Megan Cope and Nick Fintan. 

Mapping Memory exhibition invitation, Willoughby Council Incinerator Art Space



A swing in the studio - 'Linger' work in progress

Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

I'm currently working on a site-responsive installation about memory and connection to place at the Willoughby Incinerator Art Space. Initially I planned to use sheets of perspex suspended horizontally so they would seemingly hover overhead, with soil sitting on top that you viewed by looking up from underneath. But after playing with with different ways of tying and suspending the perspex, I hung one like a swing. This fragile backyard swing instantly conjured nostalgic childhood memories. With this new focal point, of the swing surrounded by aerial roots inside a building that is partly underground and partly hanging off the side of a steep hill, my installation, Linger, is gradually forming a narrative of transient childhood memories and searching for connections to place.



Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex
Kath Fries, Linger - work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Linger - work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branch,

Kath Fries, Linger - work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Linger - work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Kath Fries, Linger - work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex


Kath Fries, Linger - work in progress Incinerator Studio, 2013
Ficus hillii aerial roots, twine, branches, clay, soil and perspex

Linger will be exhibited in the Mapping Memory group exhibition, curated by Venita Poblocki at the Willoughby Incinerator Art Space, 12 June - 17 July 2013, alongside works by Cyrus Tang, Tessa Zettel & Karl Khoe (Makeshift), Thea Weiss, Tim Bruniges & Sarah Mosca, Megan Cope and Nick Fintan. link to preview artworks