The benefit of hindsight

"Later generations, with the benefit of hindsight, easily spurn the significance of their predecessors' activities and lament the consequences" (William J Lines, Taming the Great South Land, 1991).

The dead tree, which is central to the piece, connects - through its root system - fragmented images of native bush with images of contemporary commodities, drawing a link between the many texts which describe the heroic pioneering of the land and environmental texts condemning these practices.

How will future generations view our current lifestyles, in which the commodities we use and readily discard mark our identity, yet have as destructive yet overlooked impact on the natural environment as the unsustainable practices of our predecessors?

Cloth, thread, paper, and pen.

22 x 32cm

Solid ideas on fragile foundations

Pencil on eggshells, thread

17x17x17cm

2009

The physical nature of the work is fragile, and will crumble over time, but the ideas are solid and have a long history. Solid Ideas on Fragile Foundations is a metaphor for the displacement of well intended ideas and values. 
When we look at the landscape of the Mildura/Wentworth area, we see an agricultural farming community established on desert soil that belongs to others, its future uncertain. A patchwork of native bushland, green crops, and abandoned farmland,

The small eggshell drawings of indigenous plants have been bundled into a net and hung from a peppercorn tree where they are left to endure the weather, waiting to be moved to a 'more suitable' location.