During 2020, my work place in country Victoria was invaded. The culprit was spiky, sticky, invasive, over ran whole areas and was very hard to contain. Contact with it caused sneezing, running eyes and nose and areas that contain it were not safe to be in. Sounds familiar! No wasn't Covid19 but nature's own viral weed, "Hairy Panic". For those not familiar with this spiky marauder, it appears on the wind singly in tuffs but, given time forms great drifts of hairiness along fence lines, buildings and anything that remains stationary for too long. To get rid of it requires patience, persistence, the right equipment and time. It's ethereal to touch, breaking off into smaller and smaller pieces if you try to get rid of it in handfuls. The only way to wrangle it is to corner it away from breezes that send it flying to form compact balls of hairy panic. The result of this practice results in something that is smothering whole areas, to something that is uniquely formed and quite beautiful against the revealed patina that was previously covered. It fell to me to be this patient, persistent person with enough time. I saw a lot of parallels in this exercise to what happened out in the greater world during the pandemic so I documented what I did with photos. I created a series of limited edition prints for sale with a percentage of the sales going back to regional mental health specifically, the training of a First Aid Mental Health Care Person within my region of North East Victoria. This venture has been completed but declining mental health is a marauder that we have all to be vigilant against especially going through the strange times that we did. Hopefully from The Hairy Panic Project, something beautiful can be wrought out of something that was so overwhelming for some. My unique photographic images incorporate time weathered details of a working winery and vineyard and Hairy Panic but in a different light. The message is essentially one of hope and in these images, beauty emerges as the victor. To purchase any of these images, please go to the contact page. The video below is just a short on some of the feelings that I went through during the project and I am sure we all experienced in some way shape of form during the pandemic.
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