Excerpt from POST IMPRESSIONS: A TRAVEL BOOK FOR TRAGIC INTELLECTUALS
by Hollis Taylor

Curious Aboriginal children flock to us as we design the where and how of our musical fence. Jon unpacks his bass bow.

He's gonna use that stick to play the fence, says David.

You liar one, Kirin retorts.

The musical fence is three treated posts and several lengths of piano wire. The kids hang around the edges, just waiting to give the stretched wire a tug. Other than having to guard our instrument, it's all going well-but then several women approach Jon with a concern.

You can't play music with these. Them posts dead ones. We gotta bring 'em back to life. We paint 'em up.

Really? Yes, please.

Bernadette Tjingiling, Marita Sambono-Diyini, and Christina Yambeing have never painted together before. Sharing a pie plate of yellow, red, green, blue, white, black, and magenta acrylics, they sit on the ground around a post and communally cover one at a time. The first has turtles, fish, snakes, and other animals climbing a pale blue post. The second features the bush yam with soft brushwork. The third is cram-full of bright flowers and dragonflies. It's the time of year that dragonflies come out; they herald the beginning of the Dry, although they are late this year due to the weather.

There's magic with 'em, we're told.

The three women work late into the night. The next day, after we perform on the fence, the kids can hardly wait to give it a good thrashing; then the painted posts get auctioned off along with the year's best crop of paintings. Every available space on the vibrant posts celebrates some living thing.

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More Reviews from POST IMPRESSIONS: A TRAVEL BOOK FOR TRAGIC INTELLECTUALS

I must admit that initially the whole idea of fiddling on a fence seemed slightly bizarre, but having heard the music several times and, more importantly, having read your book, I've come to see you and Jon as sort of pioneers searching for a little of Australia's soul that's been waiting in the fences these many years to speak out.-Steve Pierson

You've created a world there, somewhat as in that famous Baghdad Diner film. I found the sounds and video gripping--how the sounds often seemed a bit like the landscape, or like the flies that your netting confronts.-Alan Powers

What a unique object. Like a meditation.-Penny Allen

Taylor is a terrific writer and offers a fascinating insight into Australia. I have this "wire" structure or loose grid in many of my compositions, and they define a specific space. And they came to me from Aboriginal art.-George Burchett

You were able to get such an extraordinary range of simultaneous harmonically fabulous sounds from those fences. In fact after I had watched the DVD I was checking a neighbour's property and being completely alone I started turning everything into music, running a stick along steel railings, hitting loose sheets of iron, plucking fence wires, etc. I reckon you both must have worn out a few violin bows on those rusty fences. Your outfits, those desolate places, the berserk blowflies and fences that sounded like them, all just great, and that windmill was awesome. Love the photos in the book too!-Vicki Powys