INTRODUCTION

As the unabated menace of salt silently spreads across rural Western Australia, communities quietly go about their daily lives seemingly oblivious to this salt dagger poised to strike at the very heart of the fertile earth.

The installation of Brine Obelus, a large environmental artwork, in regional towns across the State attempts to focus on the impact of salt degradation in regional communities in Western Australia. The size and location of the work is designed to involve the community through their active or incidental participation.

The forms can be interpreted as metaphors for the human figure and the menace of salt. Their surface is highly polished and reflects the light, shapes, texture and colour as they are placed in different regional locations.
The landscape becomes the gallery and the passing public become unwitting participants or witnesses to the event.

Photographic documentation of each installation will be made using a time-lapse sequence. These form a part of the work and will be displayed at gallery venues as the exhibition progresses from site to site. The documentation will grow and change, recording aspects of the landscape it passes through and the impact on that particular space.

Brine Obelus website. www.brineobelus.com.au
Edmund Stewart Judy
Chapman-Hebb

SALINITY

Dryland Salinity
Dryland salinity (on non-irrigated land) occurs when the concentration of soluble salts near the soil surface is sufficient to reduce plant growth. In Western Australia, this is basically a water management problem: Increased recharge raises the watertable, bringing naturally stored salts from depth to the surface.

Problems that develop from surface salinity include loss of agricultural productivity, loss of natural biodiversity, damage to buildings, roads and other structured, and degradation of water supplies.

Primary Salinity
Natural or ‘primary salinity’ occurs throughout the world in arid climates, including about 29 million hectares in Australia: 14 million hectares as salt marshes, salt lakes and salt flats, and another 15 million hectares with naturally saline subsoil but no ground-water or perched water to take it to the surface. Moist and wet primary saline areas have very high natural diversity in Western Australia, but are at risk from increased flooding.

Secondary Salinity - Man made
Salinity which has developed by changing land use and management is called secondary salinity. It is caused by a change in the water balance, leading to more water in the soil and a rising watertable. This mobilises stored salts which rise with the water table towards the surface. Clearing land for agriculture has been the major cause of secondary salinity in Australia.

Reference: Department of Agriculture - Western Australia. Online, 9/9/02, http://www.agric.wa.gov.au

SITE SPECIFIC ARTWORKS

In the late 1960s artists were drawn to the concept of working and locating their works in and as a part of the landscape. These often large scale sculptural projects are termed ‘site specific’ artworks. Many are installed for a short period of time and when dismantled, the documentation of the installation remains the only record of its existence in time and space.

For instance in 1972 and 76, artist Christo Javacheff installed nylon fabric and steel poles across the landscape in Sonoma and Marin Counties in California. The installation called Running Fence preceded a number of wrapped and draped installations sited in landscapes and on buildings in the U.S and Europe. The wind, light and other natural elements become a part of the installed work, often refreshing our understandings of, and sensitivity to our surroundings.

These large scale projects often require the cooperation of local councils and the assistance of volunteers to install the works. The installation takes on the character of a group project which has a public exposure unlike the confines of a commercial gallery space.

Other artists created sculptural installions which interfered with or distorted the landscape. in 1970 Robert Smithson created an earthworkcalled Spiral Jetty at the Great Salt Lake at Utah, US. This very large work reminds many people of the very ancient mystical earthworks found in a number of places throughout the world.