2006
Archival pigment print
Image size: 850 x 570 mm (h x w)
Edition of 3 (+ an artist’s proof)
Mirrored holes – an alternative landscape of Bendigo
MH-AALOB is a photographic investigation into an alternate and fictional Bendigo. These photographic landscapes of Bendigo were created in the residential studio attached to the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre. In making these images I have used various techniques including casting, sculpture and found objects.
I have long had a fascination with casting objects and the title Mirrored holes refers to this. When casting, it is from the absence or hole that we create a new and exact opposite object—its mirror1.
When I think about Bendigo and its landscape, I am tempted to think about it in terms of the Mirrored hole as well. I ask myself, would the grand city of Bendigo exist on the surface, if it weren’t for what was carved out from the ground? Would Bendigo exist if it weren’t for the holes left empty by mining for gold? And did the casting of purified gold into solid ingots shape this city?
So for me, Bendigo, gold, mines, landscape and casting are inextricably linked.
1. Stephen Haley “Transparent Things” catalogue essay for Penelope Davis’ exhibition Heavy Light at Nellie Castan Gallery. Accessed on 8 August 2007.