Merri Creek

Um, my name is Chris Ennis.

I live in Melbourne and, um, Brunswick East along the Merry Creek, um, which is Wurundjeri country.

Um, I work for a community organization just down the road called Ceres and I love to ride.

I've, you know, I've been riding, um, since I was a kid, I was a paper boy, you know, from about seven, eight years old.

And then on Saturday I went to the gym and did a light session.

Friday just a solo long run, 18K, 452 pace along the Mary Creek and the train line.

And I think I ran at about 100K, 99, 100K for the week.

Good work.

Well, my work with waterways began with a process of plastic collection.

Actually, my mum sent me a photo um, when I started to work with Mary Mary and Berani in particular, um, I encountered the Yarrow River Keepers polystyrene report so the Yarrow River Keepers are a small non-for-profit who are behind Riverfest and they released they've been annually releasing these reports these polystyrene reports and through my research I found that polystyrene is the most pervasive uh pollutant that we find in the river um and it comes from almost all sources of industry including like personal use like logistics etc um and by using that as a sculptural material i was just sort of like quite viscerally point towards back towards the river um beautiful so they attract attention and point that attention back towards the river

yeah so there's metal on on the sculptures that that you play like how is the sound involved within

yes so the metal I generally will take it from like waste sites or find it on the side of the road and when you place a material on top of polystyrene because the polystyrene is so light it has like a and you strike the metal it has an acoustic resonant vibratory quality that allows the connection of these two materials to produce a really beautiful resonant tone and And as a side note, that particular material quality of lightness is also one of the issues that we face in photography.

Firstly, we are filming in a studio.

We're filming in the amazing SheBang Studios, which is just by the Merri Creek.

Um, Merri Creek, also known as the Merrimerri Creek, um, which means very rocky in Wurundjeri.

It is the most beautiful area.

Very lucky to, to live close by here, and I do run my workshops here at SheBang.

Again, it's, it's stuff that, um, just getting a handle on where they are.

I, I've found that, uh, tawny frogmouths, we don't see them down on the Merri Creek down near the Yarra or, or out in the Yarra itself lately, but maybe I'm not spending enough time there.

But whenever I do go and look, I haven't seen them for the last few years, so why is it-

That's-

So I use grasses that I've harvested myself.

I live along the Mary Creek in northern suburbs.

and harvest all that material myself and then, you know, dry it out, prepare it and then weave with it.

I use clay, which is obviously a natural element from the ground and really try to use everything as natural as possible.

They're thinking of the bush and they're thinking of the desert.

And while that's true, if you're living in an urban center like Nam, for example, country is all around you.

And the way that I've been harvesting my materials lately, you know, along the Mary Mary and just on nature strips near my house.

has made me so much more in touch with the country that surrounds me.