‘Cloudsilk (Wollundry Brocade)’ is a moving-image landscape created at the site of Wollundry Lagoon, Wagga Wagga, for the 2018 Nightlights Projection Commission.

Using a philosophy and technical approach I have been developing, called Negative Time, the work unravels the environment around the lagoon to reveal ancient, contemporary and future landscapes existing alongside each other in hyper-synthetic, multi-dimensions.

This approach is used to express sensitivity towards, and pay tribute to, the deep-time history of the site and it’s original indigenous inhabitants, as well as reflect on humanity’s imminent experience of nature as a purely virtual interaction in the near future.

To this end the artwork also utilises the waters of the lagoon itself, via reflection, setting up an exchange between the two surfaces.

Aesthetically, the work references traditional folk-art storytelling techniques. It conjures the fine needle-work and shimmering textiles of silk brocade, the aerial views of folk cartography and linear narrative layout of tapestries and murals. Aesthetic and practical techniques that have been used to share stories, knowledge and transport the human touch over thousands of years.

Created from original live-action video I filmed at the site, then heavily processed by both hand and digital methods, the resulting work is an entirely contemporary landscape, one that crosses dimensions in time and space.

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The work is installed as a permanent 50×8 metre facade projection on the Civic Centre in downtown Wagga Wagga, on the shore of the Wollundry lagoon. Thanks to Wagga Wagga City Council.