'Diane and Diana'

By Ellin Williams

University of Wollongong

11.10.2010.

PROFESSOR DIANA WOOD CONROY speaking about DIANE GOODMAN: “I saw an interview with a woman on Australian story a few weeks ago who set up a hospital in Africa and she reminded me of Di – she would just leap in and do things, she thinks if it’s a wonderful thing to do, then she should just do it.

Di is a person who does many things at once and she seems to keep it all in the air at once and has tremendous skills and has wonderful enthusiasm for many different subjects at the same time.

She’s been enrolled as a post graduate for five years, but the dig cemented our friendship really. I was devising a project of a group of staff and postgraduates to go to Cyprus where I work in my archaeological capacity. So I put together a proposal which was actually funded by the vice chancellor and we all went off to Pathos in 2006 as part of the Sonic Architectures project. So that is where I really got to know Di well because we were staying all together in this ancient hotel on the edge of the sea in Cyprus.

It was extraordinary how she leapt into the challenge of being an archaeological photographer which requires very distinct characters and criteria from photographing in all different angles and particular light. She just leapt in and did it! She’d never done it before. I was struck. She’s one of those people who say, “Oh I don’t know if I can do that,” and does it so well that she gets asked to do all the other visual communication and design projects that are going on in the dig. So she always ends up having far too much work. So wherever she is, this happens.
We’re similar in that we probably both have a kind of ‘horror vacui’, that means a terror of empty spaces, we always like to put too much in. I’m a weaver and a drawer, I trained as an archaeological draftsman, and Di is a documenter. She comes to things to document them and get the whole picture. She works in grids, and I’ve always worked in grids, but she describes things as a photographer.

What have we accomplished together? Well, we’ve accomplished the Sonic Architectures exhibition. We were looking at documenting the theatre visually and sonically, we wanted to work out whether the textures of the theatre were allied to an acoustic quality of sound. We looked at hot spots and imagined people coming into the theatre space and where they might talk and speak as an actor and looked at lot of those ruined places and you can see a lot of them in Di’s exhibition.
Our project became something that was fore fronted as a National Australian research project across Australian universities. Di was there as an exemplary post grad student and the project which she brought such passion to, she also won a prize for best presentation for Higher Degree Research project. I was there to provide the backbone...But of course it was the two of us together that allowed that to happen I suppose.

I think I admire her tenacity. Tenacity and perseverance are often difficult qualities in visual artists because there are a lot of difficulties placed in the way of people wanting to be visual artists. And no matter that she’s had these 70-90 hour a week jobs and two sons, and sometimes extraordinary difficult times with her family; she’s always managed to get the work done. It’s always a crucial period when you’re doing your doctorate, there are all sorts of changed happening, and you’re changing too because you’re moving into the mature period of your life. So I admire her tenacity, her clarity, her never losing her cool and always sticking to her guns as my old dad would say - that’s an old army expression – “she’s stuck to her guns and she’s fought the good fight!””

DIANE GOODMAN speaking about PROFESSOR DIANA WOOD CONROY: I came to know another Diana that many people probably don’t really get to see. She always leaves me with something valuable – usually a comment, a word of encouragement or insight that stays with me and leads me to do something that I might not have otherwise done. She empowers others to find parts of themselves they might otherwise have overlooked.

I was hanging an exhibition in the Long Gallery during Spring Session 2005 when Diana approached me and asked if I would like to travel to Cyprus the following year to work with the Sonic Architectures team on the ancient site of Paphos Theatre.

My map of Paphos Theatre is an assemblage of 2,147 photographs! The nature of my work is obsessive, detailed, hyperactive and ultimately highly resolved. I have problems knowing when to stop and this is reflected in my approach to all things. Diana helps me here – she is so much more restrained and selective, I so admire her for that. She repeatedly reminds me of the Greek term ‘horror vacui’ and tells me to consider this term! Diana helps me to understand that less is more.

In Cyprus we stayed in the Apollo Hotel. It was a huge rambling ruin that set the mood for the archaeological dig. Its ambience helped create a real community feel as there were many gathering places for everyone, for all sorts of purposes. I setup the photographic studio in one of its rooms and had a constant stream of inquisitive visitors which was always delightful. Diana worked in an adjacent studio with the illustration team when she was not on site. Staying together like that gave us opportunities to chat and plan aspects of our work together, at any time during the day or night. It also helped me make many great friendships and mix with amazing archaeological specialists from all over the world. We had loads of fun at organised and impromptu evenings after work. I loved living archaeology, the teamwork my role required, the freedom of living in a new culture, of eating new food, of making new friendships and being able to travel at the end of each week to new places, with different people.

Diana organised an amazing 20 km walk from the Apollo Hotel to the ancient sanctuary of Aphrodite (Greek Goddess of Love) on the hills of Kouklia. She meticulously planned and directed the event to follow the ancient route taken by Greek pilgrims on their annual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary each year. We were a small group of women who set out at dawn one clear morning. We walked through the streets of Old Paphos, across orchards and fields, alongside new highways and old villages. Like the pilgrims, we stopped for sustenance and rest - at a cafe for hot coffee and tahinopita (Greek tahina cake), a road stall for strawberries, an orchard for oranges, a church for a rest and the yard of a kind landlady who offered us home-made lemonade, before reaching the hills of the sanctuary late in the hot afternoon sun. It was the most amazing experience that none of us will forget. Diana provided the opportunity for us to step back into the past. Her running narrative of historical and cultural stories related to the pilgrimage merged and overlayed the conversations and revelations of five women, and imbued our journey with laughter, comradeship, wonder and a sense of purpose and meaning.

I wonder about how she will live differently when she retires next year. I can see her immersing herself in travel and her practice and I look forward to seeing how her artistic practice and writing changes once she is completely free of students to teach and administration matters to attend to. I don’t think she will be able to cut ties with University of Wollongong. The university needs her too much! I can’t imagine the Faculty of Creative Arts without her! Yet she has worked so very hard over the last few years and she does need a good break and rest. This is what I hope she achieves – a wellspring for herself, a reserve that can fuel the next creative stage of her life.