McFetridge, Christine. 2023. Basalt Study. Installation. First Site Gallery, RMIT Melbourne, Australia.
Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Christine McFetridge's Basalt Study installation, view 1, 2023.
Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Christine McFetridge's Basalt Study installation, view 2, 2023.
Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Christine McFetridge's Basalt Study installation, view 3 (video work), 2023.
I saw this small-scale exhibition on 8 September 2023, in the RMIT First Site gallery. It relates to the deliberate destruction of part of Birrarung by colonial powers in the 1870s.
Due to the scale and integrated nature of the mixed media works, this dossier entry is for the installation as a whole, adopting a Langer-type approach to viewing it as one indivisible work (Chaplin-Dengerink 2019, 194).
The installation consists of a video, a low-technology overhead projection of an archival map, two ink-jet prints and seven A4 pages loosely pinned to the wall, featuring with copies of newspaper articles and letters from the late 1870s. The texts variously seem to be protesting or endorsing the destruction, although I am not too sure as I found them hard to read. Fragments of the text are highlighted in red.
The wall text provides an effective summary of the installation, which is encapsulated in the installation’s sub title When I see basalt now, I think of violence, and expanded upon in the video, which features the artist travelling by train and narrating the sorry tale of colonial-settler destruction of a basalt ledge which spanned the width of the Birrarung. This arbitrary act by patriarchal colonial authorities greatly damaged the river’s eco-system, and stands as a forerunner of human-instigated environmental damage through global warming (IPCC 2023). It is ironic that my only knowledge of the engineer responsible, John Coode, is through a fire at the chemical storage facility at Coode Island in 1991 (Mitchell 1991).
The cave-like site of this installation is highly appropriate for the excavatory nature of both the causal event and McFetridge’s research, while the use of a low technology overhead projector and archival materials aligns to the archival nature of the project.
I interpreted this work through the framework of post-colonialism, and also ecological activism. It affected me deeply, invoking great sadness and frustration at the enduring impact of patriarchal powers on the environment and the vulnerable. This type of wanton destruction still occurs, evidenced by Rio Tinto’s intentional obliteration in 2020 of a sacred site close to Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara (Thomson 2023).
This installation further fuels my intention to highlight the risks of global warming through my practice. It also reminds me of the benefit of site specific installations.
Bibliography:
Chaplin-Dengerink, Adrienne. 2019. The philosophy of Susanne Langer : embodied meaning in logic, art and feeling. First edition. ed. London ;: Bloomsbury Academic.
IPCC. 2023. 2023: Summary for Policymakers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC).
Mitchell, Sue. 1991. "Chemical Explosion at Vic Depot." Australian Financial Review, 22 August 1991, 1991. Accessed 7 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/politics/chemical-explosion-at-vic-depot-19910822-k4ic9.
Thomson, James. 2023. "Emotional Rio chairman recalls horrors of Juukan." Australian Financial Review, 24 May 2023, 2023. Accessed 7 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/emotional-rio-chair-delivers-home-truths-on-juukan-gorge-anniversary-20230524-p5db0h.
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