Packing was a temporary public artwork that was part of a wider exhibition, Felt Natural, consisting of various artworks along Adelaide’s Torrens River for one weekend. Packing worked directly with the banks of the river, inscribing a line from one bank to the other, creating an optical illusion of continuity under and across the river, which was deliberately humorous. One member of the public even asked: ‘How did we do it? Scuba?’

The public was invited to be involved in the site in different and multiple ways. The felt surface of the temporary installation Packing could be rolled upon, picnicked on, gingerly crossed or even slept on. In a phenomenological sense, it brought attention to the constructed and smoothed banks of the River Torrens/Karrawirra Parri. In Packing, the choice and location of the felt are inseparable from the rolling/sitting activities and the encounter between the work and the existing path. A visceral experience – the aesthetic encounter – is the participatory moment, the way that a public can shape and re-see the place. Packing was a collaboration with Jess Miley.