Confluence: why is it that artists place so much emphasis on originality? By Fiona Lee

Edward Lucie-Smith once remarked that artists are happy to have descendants but not ancestors. He was referring to the idea of original thought and, in this age of post-post modernity, this concept has an untenable hold at best. Two Tasmanian artists - Trudi Brinkman and Lucia Usmiani, in their latest exhibition at Kelly's Garden paid no heed to this deliberation. Well, it took them a while - probably two years - to come to terms with the fact that they were treading on each other’s territory.

Over the past 5 years, both artists had been independently collecting decaying artificial flowers blown from the nearby cemetery into the gutters along the Cornelian Bay walking track. Lucia said that at first she was “tidying up” – seeing the debris as litter, then that she found she couldn’t throw them away - a fact that would be compellingly obvious to those who know her work. Trudi on the otherhand saw the potency of the loaded material – she saw herself as a gleaner of other people’s stories.

'Love and Loss' Trudi Brinkman 2007Casually chatting one day at a party, they discovered that they had both been gathering, washing and drying the graveyard flotsam to make a work. Their first reactions were remarkably similar – one “cringed” and the other felt a “twinge” – both likening it to an uncomfortable heart-sinking thud. When you invest so much in planing a work, Lucia remarked, it is disappointing to find out someone else has been making something similar. For her, it was a double blow. “Oh shit” she thought - she had just pulled out of an exhibition slot at the eleventh hour after fortuitously discovering a similar problem with another work.

Far from shying away from this simulacrum, they waited until the time was right and, rather than abandoning the work, or worse (racing to get their work shown over the line first) they decided to exhibit their works together, a task made easier by their mutual respect for each others work.

The artists admit that Love and Loss and Don’t Make Me Cry, the ensuing works, were serendipitous in outcome - the works were graphically in tune (an ecclesiastical cross and a circular wreath) – so much so that it looked as if it had been purposely curated.

Both agree that Hobart is too small for a pedantic attitude.“You can’t become too territorial or precious 'Don't Make me Cry' Lucia Usmiani 2007about materials, here” Trudi notes, particularly, when using materials that are place specific. Lucia makes the point that it is almost impossible to avoid the problem. That you just have to learn to accept that there will always be someone out there doing something similar to you.

The other aspect these artists share is an acknowledgement that they aren’t alone. In their ‘show’ revering the dead, they happily share their potent material with walkers who seemed to have a burning desire to strategically place the artificial flotsam into tree branches and fence posts along the track.