Libris Awards

Implementing print and drawing practices is a way to disseminate history and expose the interconnections of water and land systems. Although drawn from a karst terrace of fossilised coral at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, the marks represent other reef stories across the globe. As world temperatures rise through climate change, a less than two degree increase marks irreversible, catastrophic consequences for oceans, rivers and groundwaters.

The roll of paper is laid over the ancient reef and a rubbing is taken, allowing textures and forms to be read from the calcareous structures. The frottage method transfers the geography of the object, including its history and aura, onto the material surface. The cumulative process of making marks is rendered visible with each drawn line, and does not seek to hide its history but makes evident how past actions affect the present.

Jude Taggart Roberts