Carbon Obscura - interactive light work

We decided to incorporate a darkened space for a Carbon Obscura work at the entrance of the gallery. This compelled visitors to engage with the light works as soon as they entered the gallery

In 2007, I was invited to do an ephemeral sculpture by the Nillumbik Shire Council and was allocated the green house at Montsalvat near Melbourne to install the work in. Due to the fact I have previously worked with plants, the organizers felt in some way I would fill it with plants. But quite the opposite; I was looking for a way to darken the space. I found 1000 sheets of carbon paper for $2 in a recycle shop. Hence he tile Carbon Obscura. It all clicked – greenhouse gasses, carbon and so I covered the walls and ceiling with the carbon paper. For added strength and ease of handling, the carbon paper was glued to sheets of insulation paper, mounted on frames and installed to the walls and ceiling to dark out the space. I then drew a line of trees (which are the key part of the global carbon trading schemes) by pricking thousands of pinholes through the surface to let light penetrate the space.

A fog generator was installed with a micro switch that was activated as the audience stepped into the space. This added another reference: we are all responsible for out own gas emissions. But it also brought the rays of light to life in such a seductive kinetic manner that it enchanted the audience and the message became a secondary factor. The installation, with the light penetrating the space and projecting through and onto the fog, allowed me to take a fascinating series of photographs that stand alone.

For me the process of making the pinhole work is enlightening, and gives me a greater understanding of light the camera etc. When there is only one hole it works like a pinhole camera. As more holes are created the projections merge and the dominant reference to the pinhole is the diameter of the sun. It’s these bright projections that create the steaming rays through the fog; each ray is a projection of the sun. Later in 2007 I did a similar work, Chambre Noire, at L'Arbre de Vie / Chateau de Blacons, France where the space was larger and the pinhole drawings covered the ceiling as well, which was even more spectacular.

When I began making the first pinholes in the Chateau de Blacons work, I used a digital camera to do some portraits with the pinhole projection of the château onto a large screen and people standing beside it. Then as I made more pinholes there were more and more chateaus until the images blended together. However when the sun was shining, each pinhole projected an image of the sun. If there were trees and leaves over the sun you could see the shadows, when the wind blew they moved in unison. One 7 year old described it as thousands of violin strings made of light. Kids are so perceptive.

Chambre Noire,   is a means of fusing the viewer and the elemental beauty and power of light, without the mediating presence of cameras, darkrooms, chemistry and photo paper. It is a photo-graphic experience. A true drawing with light, that ironically now only exists in documentation as a photograph.

This work was similar to the Carbon Obscura work installed at Montsalvat in 2007. Here, the entrance to Burrinja Gallery was covered with construction insulation paper painted black on the paper side and a double swing door was installed. Again a series of pinholes denoted a series of trees. A fog generator was installations inside the space which the audience could turn on to visually activate the rays of light. A series of pinholes was created to draw a cube which included the rectangular lines of light that penetrated the space around the door. During the first night of the installation the structure was investigated by opossums who created there own pinholes in the insulation paper. While some of these marks were tears and rips which were too large and had to be repaired with a patched, where possible the smaller intricate holes were incorporated into the designs of the trees.

Following the installation of Carbon Obscura, I had the opportunity to submit a proposal to Green Expectations for another version of the work.

Timed Lapse II is an intriguing but complex work, both technically and conceptually.

This work came from the Timed Lapse work I installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Atlanta USA in 2005. Some year ago, Neil McLeod had purchased the old wooden museum case that had housed Phar Lap in the Melbourne Museum in the early 1980s. The case had been in the foyer of Burrinja Gallery and during discussions on the content of the survey exhibition was offered as a possibility. In 1998, I had previously used a museum case in the Class I fication work so I decided to utilize the large case for Timed Lapse. In November, Omnigraphics had offered sponsorship to print a large work that I might need. They had a new product, Bio Flexthe First Landfill Degradable PVC, thy wanted to associate with my work. This bush backdrop scene was 8.5m x 2.5 m which fitted into the sides and back of the case. The panorama was constructed from 9 images. The floor of the case was lined with leaf litter living ferns and grasses, logs etc. Extending up from the floor at various angles were tree branches, which added the illusion of 3 dimensions.

Almost against the backdrop,in the centre of the case, was a hollow log with a web cam mounted on it. The cable was concealed through the cavity in the log and ran off to the computer. Suspended from the roof of the case was a wooden plant trough with vegetables growing in it. In front of the case was a plinth with a game control that allowed the audience to photograph themselves. These images were lodged in a data bank in the computer. The sequence of images were continually projected via a screen next to the case and also relayed to a data projector that projected the images onto the table top of the Source work in the adjacent darkened space. Each time the new projection sequence would add any new images.

Source II

This work used the table and chairs from Source I from 2005, but the original tree roots (which had been attacked by insects in the intervening years) were replaced with roots constructed from papier mache. Two lights were projected onto the structure from different angles - one green, the other red. Light from the red projector also spilled onto the double ended root sculpture Balance. Then, as the audience stepped forward these lights turned off. A data projected continually projected the image sequence from Timed lapse , where the audience photographed themselves, onto the top of the table.

Balance

This work consisted of a double ended root structure constructed from papier mache, painted white suspended from the ceiling in the corner of the large darkened space that Source and enLIGHTen were also installed in. As the audience stepped forward to view the dimly light work, a sensor triggered a projector with a indigo filter. The sensor also triggered a small water fountain that ran filled a glass reservoir which in turn over flowed and ran down the glass creating flickering patterns of light on the tree roots. Embedded in the glass sheets of the reservoir was a small fern.

enLIGHTen II

This work was another version of the earlier enLIGHTen installed in 1999.