exhibitions

palmer biennial, 2010

 In July 2005, I first visited the Neolithic archaeological excavations at Catalhoyuk in Turkey and was struck in particular by the burial of the dead in the brick sleeping platforms in the tower like houses. I speculated upon how the proximity of the dead could affect the dreams of the living. This work is part of a continuing investigation into aspects of memory and dreaming. It encompasses humanities fractured memories of our very distant past with the expression of our subconscious mind through dreaming. Our memory of dreams when we emerge from sleep is fragmented and I use this as a parallel for our cultural memory.

The towers were built on the sculptor Greg John’s hills at Palmer as part of the Palmer Biennial Exhibition, which is part of the international arts festival at Adelaide in Australia. They were built of donated unfired brick over a period of two weeks in February 2010 in temperatures of around 40 degrees in the shade. The forms were rendered with a mix of clay slip and cow muck to weather proof them and had the dream narrations which Dan had collected from numerous sources playing on a solar powered sound system inside the sculpture.  

The towers will slowly melt back into the landscape as they are eroded by rare rainfall and plentiful wind. This process is being documented and images will be updated below.

Please click on the images to enlarge and scroll through.

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