I wanted to try to find the human equivalent for this geological place. I think human memory is part of place, and place a dimension of memory.

The 51 works are positioned about 750 metres apart; wherever you are positioned within the field of the work there are tiny, hair-like verticals hanging from the horizon. Viewed in the heat and sharp light, they constantly draw you to the edge of your perceptual field.

The pieces are life-size in height but are digitally shrunk by two-thirds in the horizontal dimension. There is something in the way that people stood while being scanned that is transferred in this process of concentration.

The works are like tuning forks which allow one to see an implicit attitude that is normally hidden by the accidents of appearance. The core set of the body is revealed; a concentration in mass of the darkness of the body.

I was trying to achieve the highest level of tension between mass and space with highly concentrated and individualised bodyforms distributed sparsely across this chemical surface.

 is installed on the western end of Lake Ballard in Western Australia. The horizon is flat for most of its 360 degrees. There is an ironstone mound 120 feet high that allows a vantage point from where you can see for over 30 kilometres in any direction.

As people move across the work, they leave a tracery or drawing of connecting lines between the works across the sharp whiteness of the lake. This is a sign of the viewers’ participation in the work which changes, as does the sky, throughout each interval of the year.

, 2003, cast alloy of iron, molybdenum, iridium, vanadium and titanium, 51 elements based on 51 inhabitants of Menzies, Western Australia. Commission for the 50th Perth International Arts Festival, Western Australia. Photography by Frances Andrijich.

Inside Australia, Lake Ballard, Western Australia

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