UNDERCURRRENT

GARDENS POINT BRISBANE

"Undercurrent" is a site generated land art installation. It operates on several levels, so that it is both simple to read and understand, yet mysterious and multilayered in cryptic meaning and metaphor. Initially the work seeks to enter the viewer's consciousness through a symbolic mimicry of the river beyond. The instantly recognisable effects created by stones or boulders in a current, such as eddies; are simplified and giganticised into an arresting abstraction. The work subtly coerces the park user into an interaction of the physical + intellectual kind. While easily read as stoic objects holding ground against an almost irresistible flow, they can just as easily appear to be 'voyagers' in the lawns…proactively ploughing through and disrupting an otherwise manicured surface. The work demonstrates the inherent differences between nature and civilization and mans' desire to conquer and control the natural processes. The water element is also intentionally used as a reference to the rites of passage, pointing obliquely to an undercurrent of change in our previously dismissive and violent attitude towards indigenous culture and history. Key park-like qualities are retained through a transformative design that includes particular symbolic elements that indirectly allude to other meanings. This process has been achieved via a collaborative approach to the site and its designers, in an adaptation of borrowings or hybridisation of initial schemas.