Zanci Station: Exploded diagram (2011)
2-Channel Installation

Fiona and Sydney Myer Gallery (f. Margaret Lawrence Gallery)


I have made a number of works in places that are in between different areas of land use, places where detritus accumulates but becomes invisible because no-one is directly responsible for it. I have made work about collections of rubbish on boundaries that are far flung: two reindeer herding co-operatives in the north of Finland; the sides of roads across inland Australia; between an old village and a new freeway in Shanghai; as well as culverts and drains between towns and rivers.

Zanci Station: exploded diagram takes this work in a new direction by reading the archaeology of an old farm in a national park and finding evidence of indigenous species, introduced species, remnants of pre-colonial aboriginal culture, the remains of the station itself in the form of wood and metal artefacts, and evidence of its post-colonial status as a National Park.

Through its roving micro-perspective, the camera searches these remnants for the truth of the environment but ultimately distorts and aestheticizes, providing no truth at all. In an attempt to re-particularize an environment, Zanci Station: exploded diagram provides us with both more information and less at the same time, and allegorises our fleeting and subjective engagement with place.