Pining (2011)
2 projection installation | Stereo | Stockholm University
Pining was a project I developed with Anabelle Lacroix, a young French curator (well she was then!) for her Masters in International Curating Thesis at Stockholm University. I developed a work that joined Sweden and Australia through the motif of Pine. Baltic Pine (Furu or Tall in Swedish) has historicially been an important national symbol for Sweden. It was also a timber that had been transported to Australia in great volumes as ballast and was used for flooring in many homes, my own included. I tied this too Mallee Pine (Callitris verrucosa) which was destroyed on a massive scale along with the Mallee gums (Eucalyptus polybractea, Eucalyptus rodantha, Eucalyptus preissiana) to clear land for farming. This tragic misunderstanding of the malle environment led to massive ecosystem and soil degradation and loss. I thought this rejection of the typically and indigenously Australian to make way for a European import spoke to our colonial history. For me the Mallee is a particularly poignant part of the Australian colonial story, overlaid as it is with struggle, tragedy and heartache.
Pining was a project I developed with Anabelle Lacroix, a young French curator (well she was then!) for her Masters in International Curating Thesis at Stockholm University. I developed a work that joined Sweden and Australia through the motif of Pine. Baltic Pine (Furu or Tall in Swedish) has historicially been an important national symbol for Sweden. It was also a timber that had been transported to Australia in great volumes as ballast and was used for flooring in many homes, my own included. I tied this too Mallee Pine (Callitris verrucosa) which was destroyed on a massive scale along with the Mallee gums (Eucalyptus polybractea, Eucalyptus rodantha, Eucalyptus preissiana) to clear land for farming. This tragic misunderstanding of the malle environment led to massive ecosystem and soil degradation and loss. I thought this rejection of the typically and indigenously Australian to make way for a European import spoke to our colonial history. For me the Mallee is a particularly poignant part of the Australian colonial story, overlaid as it is with struggle, tragedy and heartache.