The mosaic panels of the Time Walk form a summary of the history of the area touching on pre-European times* and continuing from the arrival of European settlers until the 1980s. The topics of the panels were decided by the local historical society. Somewhere along the way a strict chronological order of events was lost in order to include less event-based subjects such as armed services and service clubs. Much discussion went into this process - so despite the fact that their inclusion means the Time Walk is not (strictly speaking) a timeline, everyone involved in this side of the project was happy (enough) with the result.
The artistic and practical side of the project was co-ordinated by head of art at Cooma TAFE College, Chris Graham with assistance from Gordon Robinson. Glass mosaic tiles were imported from Italy using grant money. Individual panels were designed by a number of local artists. I will name those I can recall, and welcome contributions to my memory:
Gordon Robinson, Diana Klima, Katrin Hackney, Chris Graham, Jackie Gorring, Rowena Evans
Many art students from Cooma College of TAFE, members of the historical society, and the general community worked on the mosaics.
The process for creating the mosaics was interesting. Full sized and fully detailed paintings of each design were executed on masonite. The mosaic tiles were then placed, outer face down, onto the paintings. When they were completed, cement was poured onto the back of the mosaics to embed the tiles. This was a nerve-wracking part of the process, although along the way there were also some tense moments when boards were knocked or tiles accidentally swept off them, as many people worked on several panels at a time in the large TAFE art room (art courses are no longer offered at this location).
After the completion of the project the paintings used in making the mosaics were sold at a local charity auction, raising money for a good cause in the area. Two can be seen in the stairwell of Cooma Hospital.
The mosaics were restored in recent years by another local artist, Susie Laritt.
More information can be obtained from the Cooma Visitors Centre nearby.
*Note: August 2022
Recent conversation brought to light the focus on white settler history here, in particular (but not only) remarking upon the egg-timer-like image of the second panel, in which small figures fall from top to bottom, gradually changing from black to white. Despite being involved in the project, I can't comment on the exact aims of the artist who designed this panel; however at a guess I'd say that as well as the confronting suggestion (or admission) that "black" humans were replaced or displaced by "white" ones, there were also simply visual considerations at play, with the change from one colour to another involving a quite arbitrary choice of constrasting colours, and probably a reference to the work of M.C. Escher.
In terms of the very glancing reference to Indigenous presence and culture in the project, all I can say is that the second panel, depicting deep time in the form of a spiral, was intended to show happenings and culture that were unknown to the makers at the time the panels were designed, and that the third panel, showing bogong moths and hunters, although possibly too briefly researched, was designed by one of the community artists with an intention of inclusion of indigenous culture and presence, at least of the past.
It is also worth pointing out that the general community is more aware of these considerations now than in 1988, 34 years ago, and that if such a project was undertaken now, I think there would be at least a somewhat different outcome.
Rowena
Comments welcome.
Cooma-Monaro Historical Society. The Cooma-Monaro Time Walk; a mosaic record of the history of the Monaro from 1788-1988 Cooma-Monaro Time Walk Project 1988
Conversation with A. Hartshorn and others, August 5th 2022.
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