Quarrying Memory

The installation Quarrying Memory comprised two distinct yet related elements. On one gallery wall, I placed large cyanotypes depicting the upstairs windows of my studio. On the facing wall, I used fine orange wool to transcribe the sound waves of a jackhammer, weaving it across a matrix of nails. The work attempted to give material presence to time, light and space.

The cyanotype prints were made by exposing sensitised paper directly to the sunlight falling on the windows of my studio building. I recorded the jackhammer during noisy building works that were happening close by. The recording was then fed into a software program and transformed into a graph of sound waves, which were in turn rendered as jagged lines woven directly onto the gallery wall. 

Quarrying Memory, curated by Melissa Chiu, was exhibited at Gallery 4A, Sydney, in 2000.