by Carla Caruso

December 22 was the longest day of 2022. It was also the day local artist Renate Andersone chose to walk through all the parks in your Adelaide Park Lands, in numerical order, collecting mementos in the form of photographs.

Her efforts resulted in the artwork, One Day in the Adelaide Park Lands - a chronologically arranged collection of these mementos.

Included is one image from each of the parks, except for Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1), which is represented twice: in both the first photograph, taken at sunrise, and the last (30th) photograph, taken at sunset.

For the sake of numerical ordering, Renate omitted the six Squares of your Park Lands, as well as treating Parks 21 and 21 West, and Parks 27, 27A and 27B as single parks.

Her artwork was recently on display at the Light Gallery in Marleston. Unfortunately, that exhibition is over but her work is available to view online.

We chatted to Renate to find out what motivated her to take on the project.

Hi, Renate. What inspired you to photograph a day in the Adelaide Park Lands? And why that date?

I love the Adelaide Park Lands. It is such a wonderful reminder of our connection to nature, right in the heart of the city, which otherwise, arguably, might be the easiest place to forget it.

For this project, I liked the idea of spending a whole day exploring the Park Lands and recording that experience.

I also liked the challenges the concept presented - walking through all 29 parks in just one day (the distance covered was 32.6km; total time, just over 15 hours), gathering enough material in that time to be able to put together a cohesive work. One image from each of the parks in consecutive order. No choice of weather, no time to wait for the light to change, no option to come back on another day to reshoot…

I wanted to do the project on the longest day of the year. When I looked it up and found out it was December 22, it felt like a sign as I have a strange obsession with repeating numbers, and the date of my project was going to be December 22, 2022.

What did you expect to see before setting out? And what surprised you about the experience?

I had spent a lot of time walking the Park Lands before this project. So I was surprised to find there were so many spots I hadn’t previously been to - and there still are.

One Day in the Adelaide Park Lands starts with an image, taken at sunrise in Park 1 (Pirltawardli), and it finishes with an image taken at sunset in this same park, forming a kind of loop, symbolic of the infinite opportunities for discovery in the Park Lands.

There is so much to see and experience, and it is always changing too.

Were you alone the whole day? Did you bring supplies, such as food, a hat, or other entertainment?

I was by myself, yes. I carried my camera equipment, water, and some food. My partner did stop by, at one point, to rescue me when I realised that the three fully charged batteries I had for my camera might not be enough, after all.

Luckily, he was able to charge an empty one for me in his car while I kept photographing. 

What was the temperature? And how diverse were the people you encountered along the way?

I got very lucky with the weather - it wasn’t too hot, and it didn’t rain. As to people, I was way too focused on what I was doing to notice anyone if I am honest.

Was there any particular park that stood out on your journey?

If I had to single out just one of the parks, it would be Park 1 (Pirltawardli). That’s where my walk started and finished, and it is the only park represented in the final work twice.

It also required a different approach in terms of image selection. Because I wanted the first image to be taken at the exact time of sunrise, and the last, at the exact time of sunset, I had to decide which shot it was going to be before I even took it.

With the other parks, I had the flexibility to take multiple photographs - of multiple subjects - and make the final selection later on, based on how the images looked together as a group etc.

How did you feel by the end of your sunrise-to-sunset journey, through 29 parks?

Elated, yes, that’s a good way to describe it. Surprisingly, I wasn’t anywhere near as tired as what I would have expected.

Have you entered the Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize before and had any success?

Yes, I was a finalist in the 2020 Art Prize with a filmstrip piece titled Return to Innocence (Tuthangga).

What will you do with the park photos? And what’s next on the horizon for you photography-wise?

I recently had the opportunity to exhibit One Day in the Adelaide Park Lands at the Light Gallery. It has been hanging in my home office/studio space since then.

I am currently in the very early stages of making a new, larger body of work. It may or may not end up including photography. The first piece I am currently working on is a textile.

Do you combine your creative photography with other work? What else keeps you busy when you’re not behind the camera?

I find myself wanting to expand my skills and explore other media at the moment. I am very curious to see where this might lead and how it might ‘interact’ with my photography. 

Another thing that keeps me busy is designing and making earrings. I use cotton and a tiny 0.75mm crochet hook. You can find me at my EarArt by Renate stall at art and craft markets most weekends, sharing this passion.