Last month Everything Under the Sun was launched in Walyalup as part of Fremantle Biennale. This is a work about time in every way, it had a very long development – really nurtured by the wonderful Annika Kristensen and garden collaborators Richard McDowell and Yabini Kickett. It will be in the care of the City of Fremantle. As more time passes the garden will grow and the plants will bloom signifying the changing of the seasons throughout the year. 

More info: https://fremantlebiennale.com.au/event/everything-under-the-sun/

There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.

–  Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

In this quote from her novel Parable of the Talents, Octavia E. Butler suggests that while human experiences and patterns of behaviour may repeat throughout history, each individual and generation brings a unique perspective and potential for change. It implies that while history may seem cyclical, with recurring themes of power struggles, inequality, and social unrest, there is always the possibility for new ways of thinking, acting, and creating a different future – through new ideas, new forms of resistance, new ways of organising, or new approaches to building a better world and creating a more just and equitable future.

The conceptual starting point of Everything Under the Sun is a consideration of the sun as a commons, preparing us for a changing future through collective thinking towards climate justice.

Whilst we view the sun as a common resource, it impacts and benefits individuals in dramatically different ways. So, how can we collectively think about things that are held in common? How do we share, value and protect them as we move into the future? Everything Under the Sun is proposed as a discursive place to ask these questions and collectively think about these things we hold in common.

At the heart of the work is a large human gnomon sundial, inviting visitors to stand, raising your arm and casting your shadow to become a timekeeper. This gesture—at once ancient and intimate—evokes the passage of time, connecting the past, present and future. The terrazzo blocks circling the central plinth are time markers that double as stepping stones, an invitation to play in amongst an endemic learning garden, created in collaboration with Richard McDowell and Yabini Kickett. Featuring seasonally significant native plantings as timekeepers, the garden responds to the six Noongar seasons while also tracing the ecological impacts of colonialism. The reintroduction of local species tells stories of displacement and revival—revealing the enduring legacies of empire on the land. 

Before Eastern Standard Time was adopted widely, communities often relied on local solar time, which varied based on longitude. This meant that midday in one location could vary from its neighbouring town. With the rise of railways and telegraph communication in the 19th century a homogenised way of thinking about time was pushed across different geographic locations, with trade and communication, as a key concern. Shifting thinking about time away from being local, non-linear, deep and seasonal – in essence, dissociating time from natural cycles. 

Everything Under the Sun asks you to draw attention to multiplicities of time. Using the sun, bodies and plants to tell time. Plants are time keepers – these endemic plants tell stories of the land, represent changing seasons through blooms, plants themselves take time to grow, plants have a life cycle. Everything Under the Sun invites attention to the time that a garden takes to grow. It begins as seedlings and sprouts, and slowly reveals itself over the year, as it grows and blooms with the passing of the six Noongar seasons.

Thank you Creative Australia, CreateNSW, City of Fremantle/ Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre and Fremantle Biennale who made it possible to put this into the world.