Sea Level
Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, 1997.
The title makes direct reference to a district surveyor's
mark etched onto the steps of the gallery entrance, which enabled
the artist to calculate an exact height above sea level for
charcoal lines to be inscribed on two gallery walls. These
lines coincided with the centre of port holes on plastic traffic
barriers positioned along the same walls.
The momentum for this installation
came from articles in scientific journals about low sea troughs
in the Pacific Ocean brought about by the El Niño
effect. However, the allusions are to all manner of inundation,
not just flood. The work is also concerned with limits of
accuracy and the parlous nature of prediction.
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