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Exhibition portrays flushwork not brushwork

Every time anyone connected to Latrobe City’s water system turns a tap on or off, flushes a toilet or uses a washing machine they will be interacting with ‘Wetland'

By Latrobe City Council - 29th November 2005 - Back to News

Every time anyone connected to Latrobe City’s water system turns a tap on or off, flushes a toilet or uses a washing machine they will be interacting with ‘Wetland’, an exciting and locally relevant exhibition currently on show at the Latrobe Regional Gallery.

Gallery Director, Louise Tegart said that an ever-changing installation of video and sound created by multi-media artist Michael Harkin, ‘Wetland’ responds directly to our everyday usage of water.

"Michael Harkin has had a diverse career spanning more than 20 years in many aspects of the performing arts. Harkin’s latest project, ‘Wetland’, is a new media work that uses the fluctuations in readings of water data from Gippsland Water monitoring systems to control the exhibition environment.

Ms Tegart added that through his work, Harkin explored the relationship between two of the most common and important reticulated systems in contemporary Australian life: water and data.

"Entering Wetland, viewers encounter moving images and sound, and also two large sculptural forms located at either end of the exhibition space. In both form and materials, these sculptures represent the dynamics common to both the water system and a networked data system. Each is an assemblage of polished metal pipes concealing a series of loudspeakers that broadcast the ever-changing sounds prompted by changes in the water monitoring data. The curved metal panels also serve as screens for video projections," Ms Tegart said.

"Wetland is an innovative approach to engaging community debate around the sensitive and topical issue of water consumption and management. Rising populations with expanding urban and industrial development, drought, fire and salinity are all putting pressure on this vital natural resource that is not increasing to meet demand. Rather, its supply is becoming increasingly unreliable.

"Yet, inversely, one important resource that is experiencing growth is data. Abundant, flowing and easily accessible, contemporary life is data rich. But its usefulness and quality are questionable - and the sheer quantity threatens to overwhelm us," Ms Tegart said.

"Wetland is framed in the tension that exists between the extremes of waste and need, wet and dry, water and data. The work proposes that unless our attitudes and consumption patterns change, it may mean that in the near future, the only way to experience water will be through data, and a visit to ‘Wetland’," Ms Tegart concluded.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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