Through the balcony door

Through the Balcony Door She was full of sadness and guilt As she stood before a small patchwork quilt A trace of old dresses red, grey and gold Or a gathering of memories that are being told She peered at the colours blowing at her side And wondered if joy could rise from a dark outside So she diligently worked until her fingers hurt Cutting butterflies form her long black skirt She held them in her hands for all to be seen Black on one side and the other side green Then she threw up her arms with graceful see And smiled as the fragments fluttered in the breeze An iridescent shimmer without a sound Falling, sparkling to the red dusty ground Over an image of her self a few moments before While invisible butterflies danced with her As she returned through the door ************************************************************************************ Through the Balcony Door is part of a body of work created while a Visual Arts Fellow at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Knowing little about Australia in general, and Western Australia in particular I started in the library where I quickly learned of the title 'The Cinderella State'. Soon I was journeying, like an early settler, eats and north-eats, beyond Kalgoorlie to Kanowna and up to Day Dawn and Cue. I personally recreated the colonising move inland. To Epitomise the sense of Cinderella in this strange land of promise and melancholy I made exquisite dresses, pierced and cut so that fragments fall like butterflies or flowers onto the desert soil Photographing myself in these garments, I provided a summary in an artist's book and displayed the finely made originals in the appropriately heritage building of the Arts Centre Fremantle. In a review by Robert Cook, he states: 'The visitors' book indicated that there had been many gallerygoers who had connected immediately with the show's gentle creation of a language appropriate to the ideas.' The Western Australian Today, Wed 12 May 1999.