This series explores the global consequences of our reliance on oil. In Australia food, commodities and people are by and large transported using petroleum fuelled vehicles. The ability to maintain a high standard of living is hinged on the ability to acquire it.
Debate over the cost of oil is mostly reserved for fluctuations in either the domestic fuel excise or the international price per barrel. The environmental and social cost are discussed to a much lesser extent.
I started making images of oil whilst I was on a residency in New York City funded by the Australia Council for the Arts in 2009. One of the first installations consisted of 11 consecutive cutouts, each acknowledging a link between an oil related conflict in The Middle East and the model of Dodge vehicle released in the same year.
These panels were later fabricated into acrylic and employed as markers by the Brooklyn-based art collective: The Eh Team. They formed a perimeter around an area in Greenpoint in Brooklyn NY that was affected by an oil plume. The large subterranean depository of petroleum had accumulated over several years from a leaking Exxon pipe. The site-specific installation was staged for Conflux Festival 2009.
In 2010, the Moreton Bay Regional Council commissioned a series of the artworks for an exhibition titled Transience. It consisted of vignettes of life in the region juxtaposed with oil splotches. This referenced a maritime accident in Moreton Bay during 2009. The Pacific Adventurer ran aground spilling 230 tonnes of oil and affecting 60km of coastline. Volatility was the theme behind this suite of artworks.
Most recently, I revised this series for an exhibition at Goulburn Regional Gallery titled Chinese Whispers. The text provided read as follows:
Over the hills the sun is rising from the deep waters. Sitting on bent knee, I imagine incredible monsters.
The artwork was intended to draw a tangent between: (a) the plight of refugees fleeing oil-related conflict and (b) our dependency on it.
Title Image: In Australia, creatures from all over the world have made their home (2012) Paper. 31x49cm
1961: The US refuses imports of sugar from Cuba because they are importing Soviet oil, then the Soviets trade the sugar for missiles. Dodge restyles the Plymouth, reversing its cars' fins. (2009) Paper. 21x22cm.
