Two-channel HD video with sound
Duration: 4:43
2023
Video Stills
Installation view
Downstream 17.09.23 is a two-channel video work filmed just outside Mudgee, at the point where Lawsons Creek flows into the Cudgegong River. Captured with obsolete DV technology, the footage embraces its low-resolution aesthetic as a deliberate gesture toward nostalgia, an evocation of the present moment as something already slipping away, like water running downstream. Time, the work suggests, is finite; the window for change always limited, and its outcomes uncertain.
Originally exhibitied in the group show There is No Lead Mine Here, curated by Gus Armstrong, the work situates itself within the contested landscape of Mid-Western NSW, where mining proposals threatened to disrupt local ecosystems and communities. By aligning its flowing imagery with the flow of time, Downstream 17.09.23 reflects on the tension between environmental fragility, economic pressures, and collective responsibility.
Since the work’s first exhibition, the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal overturned approval for the proposed silver, lead, and zinc mine near Lue, acknowledging the failure to adequately consider its full impact. The river continues to flow, a reminder that while change is possible, it is also precarious, shaped by the choices made in a moment.