Pocketfuls of gold…………….bucketfuls of sorrow”

Willoughby Sculpture Prize, Burly Griffin Incinerator – Sydney

The Sculpture is on site until December 2011.

(5 Small Street. Willoughby)

“ In a time beyond seeing, guided by what is not said, I found these textured time wrapped bins. They were lying down, whispering their secrets into the quiet scarred ground. Now as a shining guest it sees the sunset, the crust of it’s silence broken as a fresh breeze flames the shadows of this forgotten thing.” – Ingrid Morley

Background

The creative work involved recovering these distressed and corroded industrial hopper bins from a mountain –side location, (abandoned after the closure of a copper mine in the Central Tablelands of NSW in 1956). I did this using an excavator and a system of well placed slings and chains. Extensive areas of the hoppers had to be replaced, similar materials found to match the existing weathered steel to sensitively bring the hoppers ‘back to life’ The recovery, restoration and creative interventions involved 500 hours of work. Creative engineering solutions were found to elevate the sculpture.

My intervention of adding the “handle” suggests the more menacing aspect of the mining process, a big knife – a big corporation taking from the earth and leaving behind a scarred landscape and toxic chemical waste.

My intention is to provoke questions about what we destroy in order to produce.