Ewing and George Patton Galleries 1979
Installation:
- These steel bars were recovered from the construction of the Victorian Railways Underground Loop. The twenty-millimetre steel plate was used as formwork. As it was discarded it found its way to the Vic Railways Reclamation yard in Spotswood. The steel was collected from there and transported to the studio where it was oxy/acetylened into irregular strips/sticks. These in turn were wrapped/protected with soft materials such as canvass, felt and medical bandages, and attached to the bars with mild steel wire. This photo is a fraction of the original installation which consisted of 150 individual bars placed within two U shaped rooms facing each other and separated by a short passage. The exhibition was accompanied by a poster with the words listed below:
aggressors, cradles & watchers
towers, wounds, & idols
bandages, possessions & burials
barriers, wands & warriors
reservations, defences & icons
protectors, exists & shrines
compounds, malevolence & stretches
ceremonies, enemies & pyres
ties, survivors & dirges
remembrance, pacifiers & sentries