Whispering Trees

Jill Dark listening to Vanessa Kirkpatrick’s tree. The Dark family https://www.varuna.com.au/the-dark-family

A public sound installation at Varuna House

Wander through the gardens and experience Whispering Trees, a storytelling project where the words of local poets emerge from the trees in this atmospheric outdoor sound installation. The installation seeks to surprise and inspire the audience, accidental or otherwise, to engage them in a heightened awareness of their immediate surroundings and the stories these hold.

The Whispering Trees sound installation will feature at Varuna, the National Writers House as part of the Sydney Writes Festival Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 May as well as the iconic Carrington Hotel gardens in Katoomba, Thursday 21 May – Sunday 7 June as part of the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust projects.

Whispering Trees is produced by Blue Mountains artists Damian Castaldi and Solange Kershaw, working together as sodacake in collaboration with 5 local writers and poets: Craig Billingham, Emma Brazil, Amanda Kaye, Vanessa Kirkpatrick and Mark O’Flynn who have contributed their poems and stories that reflect on a tree, a place, or an element of the landscape from which it will be heard. 

Amanda Kaye
Craig Billingham
Emma Brazil
Mark O’Flynn
Vanessa Kirkpatrick
Mark O’Flynn, Jansis O’Hanlin and Solange Kershaw listening to Mark’s whispering tree …

Whispering Trees is their first public sound installation by Solange Kershaw and Damian Castaldi in the Blue Mountains since moving to Blackheath in October 2013.

Saturday 16 –  Sunday 17 May 2015 10.00am – 3.00pm

As part of the Sydney Writers Festival 2015

Varuna, the National Writers House

141 Cascade St Katoomba, NSW 2780
Free outdoor public event

Thursday 21 May – Sunday 7 June 2015 8:00 am – 9:00pm

Carrington Place (gardens at Carrington Hotel)

This project was supported by the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust Cultural Grants Program 2014

47 Katoomba Street Katoomba, NSW 2780

The artists would like to thank all of the writers for their contributions in words and recordings and Jansis O’Hanlin CEO and Prue Adams, Varuna & Sydney Writers’ Festival Co-ordinator for all their support and enthusiasm for this project.