DRY DOCKS: THEy’re SHIPPING it in
“Water, water, everywhere... nor any drop to drink...” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Dry Docks: They’re Shipping It In makes use of an old corrugated water tank and heavy timber tank stand. The tank which no longer holds water, is reconfigured into a vessel of an alternative form, a ship, both of which relationship to water is primary; a tank, a tanker, a ship, an ark. As Australia experiences each severe water crisis, the sculpture, Dry Docks: They’re Shipping It In echoes perceptions of water shortages, what that means for us and those means being implemented to assuage it. Having lived in regional Australia I have a first hand perspective of how precious water is as a resource and how careful we should be to look after it.
2007. Steel & recycled found objects (water tank, hardwood timbers, plumbing fixtures). H233cm x W140cm x D150cm. Private collection.
At sunrise Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2008. Awarded Tom Nelson MUA Artists Subsidy.