The Reveal is a highly evocative installation by Helen Bodycomb (artist), Cate Kennedy (writer) and Aunty Lee-Anne Clarke (cultural advisor and artist) situated beneath the towering mountain ash and tree ferns of the Doongalla Forest in goranwarrabil (the Dandenong Ranges), Victoria.

As visitors walk through the site, they gradually encounter shifting compositions of basalt boulders adorned with intricate, shimmering mosaics depicting aspects of the distinctive plants and wildlife of the area. Accompanying the imagery is a series of engraved and sandblasted text that intertwines ancient Wurundjeri knowledge with contemporary reflections on the myriad relationships that shape the forest ecosystem, from the sprawling network of fungi beneath the earth to the flight paths of birds above.

The artwork itself is designed to rise and fall like natural rhythms, inviting visitors to attune their senses to the environment. As they move through the installation, they become part of the forest’s ongoing story—observing, listening, and interacting with its elements in a way that fosters a deeper sense of connection.

The yarning circle at the heart of The Reveal honours the Wurundjeri people’s enduring relationship with this place and their deep-rooted cultural knowledge and stories passed on through generations. In this way, as Kirrae Whurrong Elder Aunty Lee-Anne Clarke observes, the installation expresses a poetic affirmation of Country:

Seen from an Indigenous cultural perspective—this artwork is needed. Sharing stories of respect and awareness, helping to build respect for Wurundjeri culture and place. We are walking around and loving it, walking, but it is a very different experience when you sit and spend time in the space, enjoying watching the daily life of birds and insects.

Caring for Country, the beauty of nature is what we need to look after—that’s the take home message.

Helen Bodycomb – Artist

Cate Kennedy – Writer

Aunty Lee-Anne Clarke (Kirrae Whurrong) – Cultural Advisor

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Martin Paten – Project Manager

Loretta Childs – Landscape Designer

Matthew Boyle – Technical Coordination & Installation

David Paul – Lyrebird Photographer

Tom Anderson – Stonemason, Pyrenees Quarries

Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation

Pyrenees Quarries

FJC Memorials

JB Wilson

Special thanks to Tom Anderson, Stonemason

Aunty Lee-Anne Clarke

Aunty Lee-Anne Clarke is a proud Elder of the Kirrae Whurrong people of Southwest Victoria. Lee-Anne has participated in art exhibitions such as the group project Connecting to Country at Bunjilaka, Melbourne Museum in 2008 and she was awarded the General Award for her painting Stand My Ground at The Incinerator Arts complex in 2007.

Her ongoing contribution of storytelling through her art has been integral to projects such as The Five Elements joint art installation at the Sunvale Community Park in 2018, the Aunty Joyce and Uncle Boots Mural joint project with Mike Maka aka Makatron and Mandi Barton at STACC, St Albans in 2021, and The Grasslands Mural at the Melton Woodgrove Shopping Centre in 2022. In 2023, Aunty Lee-Anne was commissioned to paint two works by the St Albans Victorian Aboriginal Health Service.

In December 2023, Aunty Lee-Anne graduated with a Certificate in Aboriginal Cultural Management with La Trobe University, while also working in collaboration with Helen Bodycomb on a series commissioned by Brimbank City Council. Aunty Lee-Anne has recently been awarded the ‘Arts, Culture or Tourism’ award at the 2025 We are Brimbank Awards for the ongoing arts and culture projects she has been involved with in the Brimbank Council area.

Cate Kennedy

Cate Kennedy is an Australian author widely published as a novelist, short story author, poet and essayist. She earned degrees in Professional Writing and Editing at the University of Canberra and Literature Studies at the Australian National University, and went on to attain her PhD in Creative Writing by Research at La Trobe University in 2021, where her doctoral thesis was awarded the Nancy Millis Medal.

She worked in theatre and community development before becoming a full-time writer, and in her home country of Australia is best-known as a poet and short story practitioner. She currently writes for the Saturday Paper, the Monthly, Griffith Review, and Womankind magazine, and is in high demand as a writing teacher, mentor and editor in both adult writing workshops and writer-in-residency school programs.

She has taught throughout Australia, as well as in Singapore, Vietnam, Bali, Fiji, Vanuatu, France, Austria and the USA. Cate is currently a faculty member of Pacific University’s MFA in Creative Writing program in Portland, Oregon, teaching both fiction and non-fiction, and her story collections have been on the VCE syllabus as teaching texts for several years.

Helen Bodycomb

Dr Helen Bodycomb is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists specialising in mosaic. Mosaic is both a way of thinking—about creating single works through the assemblage of many small parts—and a way of making—traditionally using durable materials such as stone, glass and ceramic. Helen has practiced full-time as an artist working predominantly in stone and glass for more than 30 years. She also applies mosaic methodologies to more experimental artworks exploring ephemera and biodegradability.

Helen’s innovative work with large sculptures for public sites, extend from the use of terrazzo to complex, precision inlays of kiln-fused glass features into multi-tonne boulders. Helen is internationally regarded as a leader in both theoretical and technical applications of mosaic and sculpture, and is widely professionally active, exhibiting, fulfilling commissions, guest teaching and presenting her work nationally and internationally. She has been pivotal to re-defining mosaic as an art form in Australia, having initially trained as painter (Victoria College, 1988–1990 and Monash University, 1993–94), and also having worked under Maestro Giulio Candussio in Spilimbergo, Italy in 2001.

In August 2019, Helen completed her practice-led PhD in Visual Art with La Trobe University, Australia, with her research project investigating ‘Mosaic: classical principles and the act of making in contemporary works’. This research sought to clarify and defend traditional mosaic conventions and assert how thinking in mosaic can augment wider contemporary art practice.

Martin Paten

Martin Paten is a highly experienced arts and cultural industry leader, manager and producer with a proven track record providing creative and strategic services nationally and internationally, within government and not-for-profit organisations. Highly-developed planning and project management skills are further complemented by excellent interpersonal and negotiation abilities in establishing trusting relationships.

Martin brings industry expertise, imbues positivity and capability to inspire confidence and collaboration, and an ability to work across diverse situations and settings. Martin is a highly experienced people manager, building capability and autonomy, delivering multi-faceted outcomes within tight parameters in performance measured organisations.

Martin is experienced in working with organisations and individuals traversing diverse cultures, beliefs, abilities and identities.