Teetering like a September myth.
Each year, on that first warm day following the long cold, as the scent of blooming clematis and withering wattle fills the air, its presence like old stories.
The grasses once fed by winter rain, just as our bodies, begin their decay under the intensifying sun. A slow but ever present withering. The clematis does not worry for the year where its roots cannot maintain hold. Not a worry that I am aware of, anyway. Do the wrens understand that their life expectancy is one of years, not decades?
Or can I, truly, understand this?
Nestled within floral blooms over the first days of spring, Australian visual-artist Angus Scott’s first monograph Teetering like a September myth navigates confrontations of death and loss whilst searching for solace within surrounding life cycles. The series is made up of 44 monochrome images and five passages of text which draw upon the seasons and ecological cycles of south-eastern Australia.
Developed in parallel to a dear friend's process of mourning, the photographs are imbued with stages of grief, questioning how we can place our individual experiences within timescales both larger and smaller than our own. Beginning its journey amongst new growth, Teetering like a September myth reads like a life cycle in and of itself, fluctuating between stages of birth, loss and ultimately acceptance. The series forms intricate links connecting ecological processes and human mortality, positioning the self amidst the varying beginning and end points that surround us everyday.