In 2000, in my first term at art school (Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney), I found myself in a drawing class taught by inspirational Sydney-based artist and teacher Margaret Roberts. Margaret tasked us with ‘drawing on the environment’ – creating ‘drawings’ without using conventional drawing materials, and using the physical world as our paper or canvas.

Wandering around the college grounds, I realised I was looking for movement – a line to follow, a direction to take. I took a large ball of string and followed the shadow of a small solitary tree, paying the string out as I went.

Earlier this year, visiting Broken Hill with this exhibition in mind, I was struck by the space, the light and the shadows. The outcome – slow silhouette – is an extension of that art school sketch. It begins at the moment that the shadow of a chosen tree separates from other significant shadows around it, and ends when it again merges with them.

The luminescent drawing is doubly a ‘collaboration’ with the sun: the sun first determines the line, then renders it visible each night via its energy, stored during the day.