Regeneration – The Listening Place
Land Art responding to the site of Kalorama Park
Regeneration – The Listening Place, 2024
Sculptures and Land Art concept: Jon Tarry and James Morton, TARRMACstudio
Landscape: Marti Fooks, FOOKS Landscape Architecture
rescued timber, stainless steel, shaped earth, native planting
Regeneration – The Listening Place is inspired by this site.
For decades this place was an open field with expansive views to lakes, mountain ranges and cloud-filled skies framed by majestic trees. Embedded in the site’s diverse living ecosystem are cultural layers that reach across time.
In the late nineteenth century, Wurundjeri woiwurrung ngurungaeta William Barak depicted traditional cultural life through drawings which feature the lyrebird, rendering them with an intricate gesture. The creature’s ability to mimic sounds of other wildlife is heard echoing through the valley to this day.
A leading member of the Heidelberg School, Arthur Streeton painted the Australian landscape through European eyes, with particular attention to the quality of light, one subject being this exact site in Kalorama.
Renowned landscape designer Edna Walling profoundly influenced the way we think about and do things in the garden and beyond. Her innovative garden designs, including a number of commissions in the Dandenong Ranges, emphasised the importance of sustainable practices, and she was an early advocate for the conservation and use of native species.
The forms and functions of Regeneration – The Listening Place are responsive to the sounds of this site and include an interactive element for visitors to explore and make connections between past and present moments.
In harmony with nature’s geometry, the sculptural forms are hand-worked from fallen trees. Subtle sculpting of the land with paths and native plantings combine, creating a place of listening and looking. Carved to emerge from the earth and reaching skyward, the human-scale forms appear malleable, echoing the surroundings and the way trees and foliage sway. Like antennas, they pick up air movements, quietly relaying sounds up close and from afar.
Placing one’s ear against the harmonic sculpture reveals the site’s hidden sonic dimension.
About the creative team
Dr Jon Tarry (TARRMACstudio)
Jon Tarry creates art as a way of testing ideas about the prosaic, political and poetic, in the form of sculpture, drawing, film and sound. His work explores art and architectural conditions as a comparative investigation of spatial intelligence. The process of creating his works informs a new understanding of the medium and the subject he is examining. For Tarry, the act of generating his art is just as significant as the work itself.
Working internationally and across Australia, Tarry’s practice traverses sculptural and sonic arts. He has exhibited for over three decades including Reasonable Dreams, Paris, 2014; Cadence, Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts, 2019; and Mobility or Mind, Venice Biennale Italian Pavilion, 2021. Tarry has delivered complex large scale environmental art projects including Waterline, a sculptural water feature in Yagan Square, Perth, 2017; Sonic Broome, working with school groups and Yawuru and Djugun people of the Kimberley to create a light and sound art screen in Broome, WA, 2018; Naturescape and experiential playscape Masterplan with Plan E and Dept of Education, Kings Park, 2012; Valletta Gateway, Malta, historical interventions AP and Renzo Piano Workshop, 2014.
Marti Fooks (FOOKS Landscape Architecture)
Marti Fooks is a designer, educator, and activist known for thoughtful ideas and collaborative practice. She has extensive experience both locally and internationally working on a number of highly acclaimed and complex projects. Her skills range from conceptual thinking to project management, but she is best known for her design activism. Her practice explores how public spaces can be sites where community tensions, control, and identity are negotiated and contested. She is interested in landscape, design, art, and the environment, with a focus on community-led practice and processes that inform meaningful outcomes. The chaos of working with communities inspires her. Her work engages with nuanced aspects of design—geology, ecology, arboriculture, water and hydrology, nocturnal conditions, risk, and community dynamics. Her creative practice is iterative and rigorous, testing ideas, forms, and materials. She is highly technical, able to manage scope, budgets, construction, and coordination, all while maintaining a strong focus on design excellence, innovation, and sustainability.
She has previously won the Future Park Internal Design Competition 2020, Environment Art ngurruk barring competition (EOI and design ideas stage) 2023 and was the recipient of the Alistair Swain Grant Design Audio Grant 2024. FOOKS has been profiled in Scape 2024, Landscape Architecture Australia 2024, Parlour and Green Magazine. Marti teaches RMIT University the Masters of Landscape Architecture programs and is the Founding Chairperson of AILA Queer. Select projects include Aboriginal Hostels Limited, Apmere Mwere & Ayiparinya, Alice Springs, Mparntwe, 2024; Yuelamu Community Masterplan, with Rattlepod Landscapes, Central Land Council, Arrernte, 2023; Lalor Neighbourhood House Community Garden, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, 2023; and Porronggitj Karrong and Ovoid Aqueduct Design Studio, Geelong, Barwon Water, Wadawurrung, 2023.
James Morton (TARRMACstudio)
James is a multidisciplinary artist, collaborator, and creative facilitator, whose artistic journey is characterized by continual evolution and transformation. He is dedicated to exploring an archaeology of ideas, where ancient concepts intersect with contemporary modes of expansion, experiences, and insights. With each work he seeks the potential for new understandings resulting in a magnitude of themes and mediums being expressed. He is committed to fostering stronger connections with and a deeper appreciation for the rich heritage of both ancient and contemporary First Nations Australia.
Recent highlights include: Mobility of Mind, a series of three film and sound pieces showcased at the Venice Biennale Italian Pavilion in 2021; Yaragadee, a three-story glass installation with hand-woven textiles at Bob Hawke Senior College in Subiaco, unveiled in 2023; Sonic Broome, a collaboration on a 100-meter light and sound art screen in 2019, working closely with local school groups and Indigenous communities in the Kimberley; and Evocation, featured in the WALLACE Gallery’s SINE Exhibition in Perth, demonstrating James’s innovative approach to film, sound augmentation and personal reflection.