VACUI | 2013 | Video Projection| Mildura Palimpsest Biennale #9 | 4:00 minutes
Site: Lake Ranfurly
Located near the junction of the mighty Murray and Darling Rivers, on the border of three states and inland to Lake Mungo World Heritage site, Mildura’s rivers and vast blue horizons intersect with row upon row of vivid green citrus and vines ruled into the red desert sand.
In dialogue with the glittering of the salt and the concavity of the boat, is a cosmological sequence of glittering stars; a close-up of the murky waters of Lake Ranfurly reveals unexpected plays of light. The scorching brightness of the sun is gently rippled in the salty water, and broken into innumerable little suns.
Water, the nonexistent element in the first part of the installation appears dark and nearly invisible in this video; along with salt and light it forms the triad of elements that determines the landscape; elements that devour, evaporate and absorb each other and produce a harsh cycle of light, solid and liquid. Within this universe, the human tries to fit in, diverting, digging or damming his way into the cycle, perhaps unable to embrace it all but gazing at its components.
The absence of water and the triumph of solidity around the memory of it or the presence of it, dark and slow, slowly evaporating through the force of miniature galaxies, twinkling within it.