strain - new work under development 2011- 2012

Sculptural, auditory & kinetic installation: Strain

Strain will be made of a combination of laminated wood, trace steel wire, sound amplification system and Dickensian Steam-punk inspired precision driver mechanisms. Realized to a highly polished aesthetic finish, Strain will consist of five sets of seven elegant bow-like elements, each standing 2.4m tall. These elements will travel through degrees of tension, via a protracted process of the ‘winding down’ of the trace wire – compressing, and subsequent slow releasing. This applied force is conversely expressed through the deflection – the bowing - of the wooden elements. The audience will also encounter a multiplicity of sonic resonance (pitch, tone, and length); the amplification of the vibrations within the wires and timber, as the work travels through a range of tensions in the kinetic cycle. Strain will be simultaneously alluring and repelling, through the interplay of beauty and threat, harmony and discordance – the Kantian sublime. Our practice is based on the propositional lens of re-articulating space, materiality, temporality and protracting moments in time, the interstice and the sensorial and corporeal experience of the viewer. 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.