Suddenly they’re churning away from the misty sounds
in the little barque, drying books jawed-up with specimenssuch as the tough leaf of a cabbage tree Joseph Banks
and Dr Solander classified according to Linneaus’look book and named Coryline banksii because Banks
who lost his trousers one hot night in Tahitiis paying. In the clammy cabin – clothes lines of blotters –
he frets at the needling New Zealand rainfall:damp will humus the specs as if they’d never left
their forest and then what would be the point? Above allthe prizes must arrive home dry. (In Tahiti by contrast
the books were onion-skin under the Transit’s moon.)Days later on the boxy coast of terra nullius, Banks croaks
a private plea to Father Linné (Jesus of the leaf, mentorto Dr Solander), Guide me! And the barometer rises
like Eastertime. Meanwhile (no one knows this)George III’s Yankee penal colony will soon be dead,
long live the penal colony. And Banks steps ashoreat Botany Bay. He dries the drying books open and open
under the fierce sun. By nightfall, saved, but morecursedness: the Endeavour is broken, dry-docked,
the two remaining artists poorly (one died in Tahiti).For seven weeks while the cartographer perfects his lines
and Cook his book of swells all hazy with experiment,Banks and Solander, solid with their ballast of Latin,
light on the red turf, their green and pleasant Bibleheld up against the continent and they find, classify,
name, take, for science’s sake and for Londonwhere the repurposed coal hulks anchored off-shore fester
with felons, the streets glister with whisky and piss.The jewel of their findings – well there’s the Eucalypt –
a fat cock ridged in bumps, nothing girly, but serviceable,dusky red, ochre yellow, can’t miss it, obvious to bees,
and they call it Banksia because Banks (this is the chorus)is bankrolling everyone – Dr Solander, the sickly artists,
five servants, their food, the materials, to the tune of £10,000.Eventually they are churning back to England, all aboard
apart from the dead, all a success apart from that momentin Tahiti when the Transit was simply a black drop and Banks
looked past the physical world into nothingness.Back home he stocks Kew Gardens with the shoots
of pure science, his star rises and the Royal Society is born,his sphere of influence expands to I see dead people
and the colony is born.Next – this is much later – I, at 21, hogget-reared product
of the grand design, travel back (nod my head at where uglycomes from), step off the Tube at Kew to a rush of machine-oil,
flowers, Mrs Dalloway, enter the vast botanical organizationand on a winding path smell childhood colds and come upon
Eucalypts peeling to a smooth sore pink like the skinof an Englishman at the cricket downunder
and over there, Banksia, and across a small sea of bluegrassa ludicrous leggy second cousin from home waving:
cabbage tree in an unaccustomed grove.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones