linkwize
Wreck Conciliation still 3
Still from an interactive installation exhibited at the "Pacific Edge, contemporary art from coastal Queensland" exhibition, Artspace Mackay, September - October 2006.
The interactive uses photo series that are programmed into segments that move and follow the bodily movements of the exhibition viewer using a unique camera interface developed for disabled persons called "CameraMouse". Standing before a large wall-mounted monitor with a digicam mounted on top detecting their movements, viewers can stand still to drill into the layers of the work or move around to interact with motion-based routines in the program.
In the section from where this still is captured the "ghosts" with hubcap heads pan left or right to follow the viewer. The remnant rusty auto parts stream out from the central area of the image like rushing stars, also following the motion of the viewer. Meanwhile, the smokey-dusty particle effect is randomly generated and responds to the viewer's position.
The background is a constantly changing grid panel of images of remineralising auto parts. It is these images that tie the work to its location and its reason for being. The McCreadys Creek wetland where the background images were taken is littered with remnants of car bodies dumped there over decades. The mangroves in the area are arguably, still suffering from dieback or, maybe on the way to recovery now that the car dumping has almost ceased. Most of wrecks are now encrusted mounds of hardly recognisable bits that look they may have once been mechanical.
For me the whole process of degeneration, degradation, remineralisation and reclamation of the autos by the wetland is a metaphor for what happens when culture is neglected. This has particular significance in regard to the process of Indigenous reconciliation that is still topical in my country.
I have reused an image series called "The Ghosts of GMH" that I exhibited way back in 1983. Back then I realised that they had stopped putting hubcaps on new cars and the local (Elizabeth, SA) Holden plant was laying off lots of workers. The images had different significance then. Today the auto plant is still operating and still laying people off from time to time.
In this iteration the images of the "ghosts" take on new meaning. I like the way that the wrecks in the yard where I photographed 'portraits' back then are reflected in the chrome.
Wreck Conciliation still 3
Still from an interactive installation exhibited at the "Pacific Edge, contemporary art from coastal Queensland" exhibition, Artspace Mackay, September - October 2006.
The interactive uses photo series that are programmed into segments that move and follow the bodily movements of the exhibition viewer using a unique camera interface developed for disabled persons called "CameraMouse". Standing before a large wall-mounted monitor with a digicam mounted on top detecting their movements, viewers can stand still to drill into the layers of the work or move around to interact with motion-based routines in the program.
In the section from where this still is captured the "ghosts" with hubcap heads pan left or right to follow the viewer. The remnant rusty auto parts stream out from the central area of the image like rushing stars, also following the motion of the viewer. Meanwhile, the smokey-dusty particle effect is randomly generated and responds to the viewer's position.
The background is a constantly changing grid panel of images of remineralising auto parts. It is these images that tie the work to its location and its reason for being. The McCreadys Creek wetland where the background images were taken is littered with remnants of car bodies dumped there over decades. The mangroves in the area are arguably, still suffering from dieback or, maybe on the way to recovery now that the car dumping has almost ceased. Most of wrecks are now encrusted mounds of hardly recognisable bits that look they may have once been mechanical.
For me the whole process of degeneration, degradation, remineralisation and reclamation of the autos by the wetland is a metaphor for what happens when culture is neglected. This has particular significance in regard to the process of Indigenous reconciliation that is still topical in my country.
I have reused an image series called "The Ghosts of GMH" that I exhibited way back in 1983. Back then I realised that they had stopped putting hubcaps on new cars and the local (Elizabeth, SA) Holden plant was laying off lots of workers. The images had different significance then. Today the auto plant is still operating and still laying people off from time to time.
In this iteration the images of the "ghosts" take on new meaning. I like the way that the wrecks in the yard where I photographed 'portraits' back then are reflected in the chrome.