The image I'm posting here is a detail of a work that was recently on show at Canberra Contemporary Art Space in an exhibition called Social Capital. There's always this funny thing with curated exhibitions where you're responding to a theme - it generates a work I otherwise might not have made. In this case I'm feeling pretty good about this work. There are lots of small elements I don't like, especially the power cords, but as a first attempt at working with wax Its got plenty of potential.
The theme of the exhibition was to explore some aspect of the issues associated with the history of public housing in Canberra. Most of the other works in the show were photographic so I was a bit concerned my objects would look weird and clumsy in this context. Interestingly they looked much tidier once they were away from all the mess in my studio.
The idea was that over the course of the exhibition the heat from the lights inside the wax houses would cause them to start to melt. The gallery was a lot colder than my studio so the melting was much slower than expected. They did begin to melt eventually and the warping of the wax gave them a different sort of character. I don't really know what I think about this piece yet, it feels like the beginning of a new body of work so It's a bit early to say anything more.
