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| The Waterhole |
in retrospect
Artwork by Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger
Text by Gabriel García
Uncoiling like a dreamtime serpent, a tunnel of foil leads the way to a land
unknown. The tunnel is supported by a canopy of branches and appears to
breathe with my every move. I look inside the silvery cavern. Do I want to
know what lies ahead …?
Steiner and Lenzlinger were back in Melbourne last year. From December
2008 to March 2009, Melbourne’s Australian Centre for Contemporary
Art played host to their thought-provoking exhibition based on the
Australian drought—The Water Hole.
Upon reaching the end of the aluminium tunnel, The Water Hole journey
begins. I find myself facing the exhibition’s main installation: a forest of
the future.
A mobile phone with canary-yellow spider legs lays prostrate at my feet,
while tiny hybrid reptiles breed from a nest of water bottles. Fertilizer
crystals grow, forming stalactites and stalagmites, the exhibition staff
feed the crystals daily doses of water. As the crystals grow, they creep like
vines, imprinting lapis blue and coral on their surroundings. Upturned
umbrellas searching for water look up to the skies, and along with sinks,
toilets and bathtubs form an entirely new vegetation. Interconnected
through a tangle of tubes and pipes, this new growth bends itself towards
its one and only life source—water.
At the centre of it all, surrounded by a luscious doona, rests the water
hole—a muddy pool. I stand in front of it and see my reflection in its
surface. The image breaks into a myriad of wavelets with a plop!—the
heartbeat of this world. Hanging from the roof like a frozen star, a medical
bag drips water into the stagnant pool. Like any other heartbeat, it will
draw unparallel attention if it becomes silent.
from: http://www.ilurapress.com/img/Feature_excerpt.pdf?PHPSESSID=4dfccdaf97dc81f05c57d8067ef4da02
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