Pictures 1953
Catalogue / Memoir
Introduction
Pictures
Objects
Animations
PICTURES are both finished and ephemeral works made for animations.
1949---- 1950---- 1951---- 1952---- 1953---- 1954---- 1955---- 1956---- 1957---- 1958---- 1959---- 1960---- 1961---- 1962---- 1963---- 1964---- 1965---- 1966---- 1967---- 1968---- 1969---- 1970---- 1971---- 1972---- 1973---- 1974---- 1975---- 1976---- 1977---- 1978---- 1979---- 1980---- 1981---- 1982---- 1983---- 1984---- 1985---- 1986---- 1987---- 1988---- 1989---- 1990---- 1991---- 1992---- 1993---- 1994---- 1995---- 1996---- 1997---- 1998---- 1999---- 2000---- 2001---- 2002---- 2003---- 2004---- 2005---- 2006---- 2007---- 2008---- 2009---- 2010---- 2011---- 2012---- 2013---- 2014---- 2015---- 2016---- 2017---- 2018---- 2019---- 2020---- 2021---- 2022---- 2023---- 2024---- 2025---- 2026----
Imagine a tunnel through the world.
Imagine the curve of the earth.
How far will you go?
My friend Graham and I live on Harewood aerodrome New Zealand.
Our fathers work there as radio technicians.
They tell us if we dig enough we will reach England.
They say to dig a tunnel from Harewood (NZ) to Harwood (UK).
I image the curve of the earth but all I see is flat hard ground.
We dig with our little spades. We get nowhere. However...
Harwood is in County Durham where I do get to go, in 1973.
Imagine the curve of the earth
Drawing for animation
Page from the first journal of Tom Roberts,
my English ancestor, when he was 8:
His father Richard's discarded 1859 diary.
Richard Roberts collection, Port Melbourne
I first see Tom's journal years later in Kallista, after sailing with my family from New Zealand to Australia to live in Talisman, the house Tom and Lillie built in Kallista.
I find the diary in a big old wooden chest where Tom and Lillie stored their treasures - visitors books, photos, children's drawings and other things. The wooden chest is heavy, made of think wood and hand-carved. By contract the diary is tiny, light and bound in soft thin dark leather. It feels well worn. Its pages are thin so you can see through them.
One day in Kallista Nadya chases me with a hoola hoop and I climb inside the wooden chest to hide. As I draw the hoop now I imagine the world. I remember digging with my friend Graham, a tunnel from Harewood (NZ) to Harwood (UK).
EVENTS
1953: Britain exploded several atomic devices at Wimera.
1953: Australian Atomic Energy Commission created as a statitutory body to manage the search, mining and disposal
1953: Oil discovered by West Australian Petroleum Ltd. near Exmouth Gulf, W.A. at Rough Range Well No. 1.
Ref. The Australian Almanac, Pub. Angus & Robertson 1985
1953: Coronation of Elizabeth II is held in the United Kingdom;
1953: Joseph Stalin dies, ending an era of Soviet rule;
1953: the Korean Armistice Agreement ends the Korean War;
1953: the Attack on the Moncada Barracks launches the Cuban Revolution;
1953: the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat topples Mohammad Mosaddegh;
1953: the East German uprising of 1953 is suppressed;
1953: the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition achieves the first ascent;
1953: the North Sea flood of 1953 devastates Western Europe;
1953: the Tangiwai disaster kills 151 in New Zealand.
Ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953
I get this message:
A significant election occurred in 1949 which wrecked the Labor Party until Whitlam in 1972 - the election of Liberal PM R.G. Menzies or 'Ming the Merciless', John Howard's favourite and his mentor. Powerful groups (banks the commercial media and other businesses and organisations like the property council) work together when their interests are threatened. Chifley's attempt to nationalise all Australian banks in 1949 stirred several groups to action to ensure that Menzies was elected. Chifley was responding to the banks' role in the1930s depression in colluding with the Bank of England and the National Party to create a collapse of the Scullen Labor govt (1929-31).
Email received Mon, 21 Sep 2026
From Norfolk Island Sister Jess
2004 Pteropod (winged foot)
Sea butterfly
Animation
Written by me, Lisa Roberts/Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill), on
22/09/2026
