Mining Series

Flower Series | Serbia Exhibition 2011 | Woolshed Series

Mining has proved to be an enormous and fascinating resource for an artist.

Through my work I have sought to give expression to the stark beauty and monumentality of mining structures in the landscape. I have also endeavoured to encapsulate that enthusiastic optimism and noble tragedy paradoxically seen in mining and also very much evident in the national character as exemplified in Australian legends such as Ned Kelly and Gallipoli.

The juxtaposition of big, generic mining buildings and workings and the linkage of geological maps and references with the geometric shapes of the structures and machinery are designed to reveal the uncontrived courage and liberating energy found in the national psyche. At the same time, to capture the sense of tragedy, mining systems and symbols as well as the lonely, abandoned headframes and broken down mining structures are presented as statuesque reminders of the dignified absurdity of much of the Australian outlook on life.

Mining and its long history reveal one of the abiding passions of this Continent.