The Silver Paddock

2018. Sterling silver, water, video, washing machine door, wire.

The Silver Paddock is a multimedia installation exploring the concepts of the transportation and storage of water, our most precious natural resource, and most misused. This work explores these themes within the context of Broken Hill. The hand-made sterling silver barbed wire references the presence of mining and Western agricultural and industrial practices. This is questioned through the meticulous hand-made nature of an abstract fence, utilising precious metal to create a thing of confinement around a domestic item.

The video installation features footage of the moon at around 70% illumination from Lake Pameroo, combined with footage taken down a pipeline at Junction Mine. The video installation is concerned with the misuse of water and rising and falling water levels.

The video installation plays through a found washing machine door, used as a vessel to hold water, precariously strung mid-air. Streams of light flow down and reflect off of the sterling silver barbed wire, mimicking droplets of water bouncing around the installation and eventually, projecting onto the ground.

This work was made with support from the AGL Cross Cultural Scholarship and the Artist and Residence program at the Broken Hill Art Exchange. It was exhibited at The Grand for the closing of the 2018 Desert Equinox.

Photographs: Harry Copas
Videos: courtesy of the artist