(The tapestry section of this work is currently for sale on Astromart - NOT the telescope)
This is a major new work I've created for a show at the Goulburn Art Gallery in December 2011 involving a small Steampunk telescope and a huge wall hanging star map printed onto fabric. This is actually a very significant piece for me because although I've exhibited many 3D works at galleries all over the country, this is my first 2D piece to go into a proper high profile art venue - Which I'm very excited about.
The work's based on traditional star catalogues in which the outlines of mythological creatures were fitted to the patterns of stars in the sky, creating the constellations we are familiar with today. Later when Western explorers mapped the parts of the Southern sky not visible from Europe, some of the constellations they chose were more contemporary such as Microscopium (the Microscope) and Pyxis (The Mariner’s Compass). This work extends that concept to the present day by creating entirely new constellations based on elements of our modern world and fitting them to the real stars of the Southern sky.
It's a sort of a reflection of the world below which aims to simply illustrate the modern world, not to judge it. It encompasses the good, Miraculous Curem (The Antibiotic), the bad Servus Obscurum (The Invisible Slave) along with many concepts who’s value or lack thereof, is entirely dependent on the outlook of the viewer.
Occupying the foreground space is a large sculptural telescope that outwardly looks Victorian, but in fact contains the latest in modern optics and electronic drives. Again the aesthetic dressing stands at odds with practical physical reality of the object. This telescope was the first such instrument I built, based around a TEC 140 OTA and an EQ5 mount. The lessons I learned building this work served me well in the far larger Great Wetherell Refractor.
Collectively, the work explores a past that never was. A Steampunk combination of technology, history and the visual taste of the Victorian era.
This is one of my personal favourite parts of the work, the mobile phone girl. It was inspired by a visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum in the UK. A father was taking his daughter around the museum showing her some awesome things like giant steam engines, a working Victorian foundry in which molten iron was being poured etc, etc. And the whole time she did nothing but play with her mobile phone. This seemed like a symptom of the times so I incorporated her into the border together with an unfortunate angel doing her damndest to inspire the girl to lift her eyes beyond the screen.
This constellation was inspired by a story I read about workers at a factory in Asia throwing themselves from the roof in preference to spending another day in the monotonous oppressive "battery chicken" environment of the Western owned factory. Great set up if you like cheap goods - and I'm as guilty as any of us of buying such things - but it must be a horrible life for the people who have to make them. Reminds me of the British workhouses where poor people had the choice to either labour long unpaid hours for food or starve. But in some ways it's worse because these people are out of sight and out of mind.
There's actually a maccers right round the corner from the gallery where I often have lunch if I'm heading through Goulburn on my way to Sydney. Again good or bad? Depends on your point of view.
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