Snow Circus at Possum Flat

For regional artist Catherine Larkins, conceptualising and coordinating Snow Circus at Possum Flat gave new insight into the hardships and rewards of making art in remote locations.

Held in the harsh alpine country between Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain; the band of artists and locals involved contended with gruelling conditions and logistical conundrums.

"At first it was hard to engage the High Country people. They're incredible - they're facing locust plagues and bush fires, water shortages and farms going down the gurgler … and the long drives to participate in Snow Circus cost time and money…I admire their resilience, they got involved regardless."

Even choosing a performance date proved difficult with zero snowfall recorded at Possum Flat in early September - an unprecedented occurrence.

On the night, after trucking-in snow for the preceding 48 hours, Catherine watched as icy rain bucketed down; melting snow, creating dangerously slippery gradients and wreaking havoc with fireworks and tightropes.

As Artistic Director, it fell to Catherine to make a critical decision: after three months of intricate planning, problem solving and careful involvement of community members, would she cancel the show, knowing that this once-in-a-lifetime, multi-layered creation may never be realised? Or, should she give it the green-light, risking potential hazards and a sub-standard result?

The show went on and Catherine, and the audience, sat in awe as the exquisite vision unfolded.

A sculptor by training, she still refers to her work as "painting pictures in the landscape", an understatement for her elaborate cross-artform productions.

Catherine has a long history of collaborating with, and directing fellow artists and community members to create bold visions in natural sites.

But Catherine's work is not just about creating mind-blowing visual experiences. She's also deeply committed to the local people she works with and is a passionate believer in the capacity for art to engender social well-being.

"My work is about having fun, showcasing local skills of both artists and non-artists and making room for generosity of spirit through collaborative exchange".

Catherine approaches each project with the mantra "By whatever means". Once she's found a location that floods her mind with potent imagery, she asks herself "Who are the skilled local people I need to work with to make this happen?"

Then an extraordinary dialogue begins: "At certain stages in a project I'll find myself discussing art with some of the most unlikely people … a logger, a truck-driver, a bureaucrat from DSE, a snow groomer and a pyrotechnics expert …"

The process of Snow Circus delivered many a personal revelation including the realisation that "the in-the-moment, knife-edge, decision-making it demanded [was] something theatre practitioners rather than visual artists, must contend with all the time".

"The work was only 20-minutes long but so much time and effort went into every moment: so many hands were involved in creating Snow Circus.

"While I watched the work unfold in 'performance' I was totally overwhelmed. It was only in the stillness of my own space when I looked at the photographs after-the-fact, I took it all in, it was so rewarding: a vision realised."