MIRAGE PROJECT [salt]
Stereoscopic Photography Installation
2013
Commissioned by LUMA | La Trobe University Museum of Art
for the Palimpsest #9 Biennale, Mildura
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australian Antarctic Divisions Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship.
MIRAGE PROJECT_____[salt] is a re-contextualization of MIRAGE PROJECT____[iceberg].
The content of the stereoscopes remains the iceberg but the location of the installation is a salt pan know as Lake Ranfurly in Mildura, Australia. Mildura is an irrigation town situated in the arid North West of Victoria on the banks of the Murray River. The towns history and future are dependent on flow and control of water from the river.
Here the viewers are presented out in the open space of a salt lake, the native home of a mirage, contrasting the arid heat of the Australian landscape against the cool ice of Antarctica. The empty and exposed space between the viewers demanded a physical effort by the spectators to engage in the work. In this context the installation resonated with the local history, provoking discussion about the lake systems of the area that flourished 30,000 years ago.
The viewers on Lake Ranfurly were positioned in the same spatial layout as the positions of the original photos. By walking from viewer to viewer the spectator retraces my journey in a little rubber boat around the iceberg. Thus the 3D photo in each viewer becomes a window onto a parallel world, insetting this glorious ice mirage into the imagination of the spectator.
The idea is to convey the extraordinary experience, sense of wonder and discovery inspired by "getting up close" to an iceberg. This wonder will be re-enforced by the contrast of this Antarctic reality against an arid Australian landscape.
