Mine

By Matthew McVeigh

8-22 Oct 2013

APPROPRIATED SERIES:

These works have been created by appropriating Neal Pritchard’s photography, in order to recontextualise them, to reflect the value placed on the North West landscape. The work uses the method of cutting, to create specific iconography, text and mapping pins, to directly comment on resource distribution, land ownership, global relations and economic growth.

Photographic Works:

1. Title: Slice of the Pie

Medium: Hand cut photograph, pins, thread on paper.

Dimensions: 56.5x 76 cm

2. Title: Jewel of the Pilbara

Medium: Hand cut photograph, pins, thread on paper.

Dimensions: 56 x 75 cm

3. Title: International Relations

Medium: Hand cut photograph, pins, thread on paper.

Dimensions: 56 x 76 cm

4. Title: The Presence

Medium: Photograph, paint, timber, pins, thread on paper.

Dimensions: 11.5 x 18.5 cm

5. Title: MINED/MINE

Medium: Photograph, paint, timber, pins, thread on paper.

Dimensions: 11.5 x 18.5cm

Paintings:

These paintings use both technical drawing techniques associated with surveying and traditional techniques of indigenous ochre painting to create artworks that represent both the cultural and economical value we place on “land” and “place”. These works also use fire and explosive material to reference both mining explosions and also indigenous fire-stick farming, to reference how man from all cultures cultivate and extract from their surrounds.

  1. Title: Rock Study

Medium: Pyrography, ochre, ink, plywood.

Dimensions: 600x 1200mm

  1. Title: Delaunay’s Cut

Medium: Ochre, ink, plywood.

Dimensions: 1200 x 1200mm

  1. Title: Surveyed

Medium: Ochre, ink, plywood.

Dimensions: 1200 x 1200mm

  1. Title: Cultivated I

Medium: Pyrography, phosphorous sesquisulfide, ochre, ink, plywood.

Dimensions: 60 x 60cm

  1. Title: Cultivated II
    Medium: Pyrography, ochre, ink, phosphorous sesquisulfide and plywood.

Dimensions: 60 x 60 cm

  1. Title: BOOM!

Medium: Gunpowder, blue chalk, charcoal phosphorous sesquisulfide, ochre, ink, plywood

Dimensions: 120 x 120 cm

PILBARA LANDSCAPE STUDIES:

This series of ink works, on hand made spinifex papermerge both cultural and technological representations of landscapes. Australian Indigenous motifs, topographical mapping, modern graphic design and traditional contour drawings influenced the works. All these perspectives of landforms were viewed and memorised during my residency in the Pilbara.

Drawings:

  1. Title: Fractured

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42cm

  1. Title: Circular Hillside

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42cm

  1. Title: Contour

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42 cm

  1. Title: Plains

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42 cm

  1. Title: Two Points of View

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42 cm

  1. Title: Boulders

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42 cm

  1. Title: Ranges

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42 cm

  1. Title: Pile

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42 cm

  1. Title: From Above

Medium: Ink on hand made spinifex paper.

Dimensions: 34 x 42cm

3 Dimensional Art Works:

1.Title: LAYERS

Medium: Hand cut from an out of print book.

Dimensions: 29.3 x 25.7 x 2.8 cm

Series of 5 (made on order)

This work has been appropriated from an out-of-print book. The work is based on topographic maps of mine sites in the North West of Western Australia. The ‘mine’ is cut into the photos and historical information on the iron ore industry and towns. The work makes reference to how the mining industry and the towns’ history coexist interdependently. It infers both positive and negative aspects of mining, shaping the economic and social environment of the community.

  1. Title: FLAG

Medium: Discarded mining uniforms.

Dimensions: 172 x 87.3 cm

Made in collaboration with Barb O’Neil

I wanted to create a piece representative of the culture of mining. Throughout my residency the proliferation of Hi Vis uniforms were a constant reminder of the industry that underpins the town. It seemed appropriate to choose these uniforms, representative of the mining industry, to create a symbolic flag. The uniforms have beenreconfigured to act as a general tool for rudimentary signaling,identification andas a patriotic, social andpolitical symbol.

  1. Title: FULCRUM

Medium: Iron ore, Pilbara rocks, steel, timber, discarded mining utilitarian objects

Dimensions: 510mm x 100m x 200cm

Price: POA

Made in collaboration with Steve O’Neil

The kinetic sculpture is based on a scale fulcrum and a mining reclaimer, made from sourced objects from Tom Price. One side represents the mining sector; the other is the community infrastructure. The work is about balance, where community members placed rocks on which were written their reflections about a sense of place and culture, to balance both physically and metaphorically the weight of mining. The work is about a symbiotic relationship needing to exist between mining and community. The work also explores the dialogue between sculpture, performance based art and community participation and how these work together in the final presentation of this work.

  1. Title: MATERIAL HISTORY

Medium: Resin, hand made spinifex paper, ochre, crocidolite (blue asbestos), iron ore dust.

Dimensions: Approx 34.5 x 253.2cm

The work refers to the non-traditional owners and traditional owners of the land and their interest in the region. By using asbestos fibre fromWittenoom and iron ore dust from Tom Price, I have made reference to the historical, economic and social significance that these industries have played locally, nationally and internationally. The white ochre is a material traditionally used for body painting, bark painting and for mortuary ceremonies. These mined materials, being tactile, will have different associations for the viewers, thus provoking different emotions and sentiments. The text has been resin coated and sealed on to hand made spinifex paper.

  1. Title: WEAR IT

Medium: Found clothing, Pilbara dirt, clothes rack.

Dimensions: Various sizes

Series of 5 (made on order)

1. Minors/Miners

2. Red Dirt Dreaming

3. White

4. Pilbara Pink

5. Shades

These text-based works use Pilbara dirt to stain text into clothing. They represent the ecological, economic and social issues that are connected to “place” and the Pilbara lifestyle. The work is lighthearted and plays on local humour. The work can be interpreted on multiple levels and uses red, white, and black, together with the cultural associations ofcolor for race, symbolic dualism and also their historical and modern etymology, to capture the social tone of the region.

6.Title: THE RANGE

Medium: Hand made spinifex paper, ink, timber, and rope.

Dimensions: 184.5 x 170 cm

Gifted by the artist and AIR grant partners to the Ashburton Shire

This was a work devised for the Nameless Festival 2012. It was a way of engaging participants of all ages from the community,in the process of art making. By inviting people to actively participate, the work attempted to overcome traditional divisions between art, performance and production withspectators.The spinifex paper diptych has over 3000-recorded names marked at the participants’heights. The names are representative of the shifting transient and permanent community members based in Tom Price and Paraburdoo. It is a work that is a statistical representation of the community recorded on the date of the Nameless Festival 2012 and my time as AIR artist in residence. Through its color and repetition, the work attempted to create an abstract composition of names to make up a mountain range. I thought it would be interesting to create a mountain range made up of everyones name because the festival was named after the “Nameless” Mountain.

  1. Title: THE SHAPE OF THINGS

Medium: Various discarded objects, polystyrene, grout, paint, sealant iron ore dust.

Dimensions: various

Mining is often scrutinised and portrayed in a negative light without much consideration to how our day to day lives are reliant and effected by this industry. These sculptural forms place the by-products of iron ore directly in the eye of the viewer to contemplate and consider their impact as consumers.

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