TRACE: An Exploration of Alternative Means of Documenting Ephemeral Environmental Art

20 Apr - 8 May 2011

In this exhibition, working in the field of ephemeral environmental art, Michael Shiell also examines the role of photography and the way in which it can quickly and relatively easily create a visual record of the created form but that its highly refined view of time and space is problematic.

Michael Shiell also considers the disjuncture that can occur with images captured by the camera, given it is a mechanical intermediary between the work and its representation, counter to the intimate, viscerally known manipulation of materials that occur with the creation of an environmental work onsite. Discovering isolated examples of artists using alternative formats to record and document environmental art, Sheill's work has also been informed by critical engagement with contemporary theoretical concepts and alternative image-making techniques.

Michael Shiell’s exhibition and recent work constitute the partial fulfillment of requirements of a practice-led research project for a Doctoral Award at the Arts Academy, University of Ballarat.

Image: Michael Shiell, Platanus Acerfolia—Woven Nest, 2011 (detail), charcoal on paper Courtesy the artist