Combing

For Combing I transformed half the gallery into a giant internal comb by hanging white beams from the existing wooden architraves. The central piece in the installation was a wind generated drawing machine, activated by a wind vane installed on the roof of the gallery. The drawing device was a length of aluminium that I cast from a piece of bamboo. Nearby an elliptical felt and rabbit skin structure was suspended horizontally. Hanging from an architrave was a mobile elliptical form made with clay and straw. On the floor a black and white photograph of an enlarged comb and pearl sculpture was mounted onto a rectangular box.

This work was motivated by my interest in processes of ephemeral mark-making, such as combing hair, touching skin, wind in the landscape. It involved me learning a set of new skills. I designed the drawing machine with the assistance of colleagues at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. The weather vane was constructed during a metal fabrication and welding course. The bamboo stick was sandcast in aluminium at a local foundry near my studio in Redfern. The small comb sculpture was inspired by a sand-filled comb that I found on the beach.

Combing was shown in a group exhibition with Fiona Gunn at the Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney in 1990.