TITLE | Whisperer
PROJECT | Reignite Croydon
LOCATION | Croydon
CLIENT | Maroondah Council
ART CONSULTANT | Jane O'Neill
WURUNDJERI ELDER CONSULTANTIVE PROCESS | Aunty Zeta Thomson

Alexander Knox Studio has created a kinetic neon light for the narrow lane that leads from Main St to Croydons Railway Station. The light work refers to the distinctive fields of Wallaby Grass that led to the original European naming of Croydon as “White Flats”. The artist employs the aesthetic of the neon era to create a multi-layered graphic image of the distinctive Wallaby Grass species. The image is animated to create a “wind through the grass” swaying effect. Below this moving grass the word Whisperer comes off and on intermittently creating a ghostly, glitchy form of anagrammatic poetry that speaks of this place, the grass and the First Nations people that belonged to this land. The word “Whisperer” is somewhat onomatopoeic, sounding both like the act of whispering and like wind blowing softly through grass.
During the concept design period the artist consulted with local Wurundjeri elder Aunty Zeta Thomson.