Penelope Cain. Post Office Projects. 2 Apr 2024
Penelope Cain’s Ice-told stories through layers of dust tells of how ice-cores recently taken from the Antarctic ice-shelf contain dust emitted through the mining of silver, zinc and lead at Broken Hill. The dust was carried by the wind to Antarctica 20 years before the first expeditions to the south pole in 1911.
Cain is concerned that, as the Antarctic ice-sheet melts, the dust held in the ice will find its way into the ocean and into the phytoplankton at the bottom of the food chain. (It’s likely that mining dust will have already entered the ocean on its way to the Antarctic.)
Penelope Cain, Ice-told stories through layers of dust, installation view Post Office Projects 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.
Cain’s exhibition is set out as an installation — the main Post Office Projects gallery space is converted to a 1960s style loungeroom, with various images printed on cloth hung as decorative drapes. The feature image, of a lead-silver galena crystal magnified to a huge size, is printed onto curtains, on the reverse side of which is an image of an Antarctic expedition from 1911, the whole being entitled Ice told stories of lead and ropes.
There are images of mining dust printed onto a large drape, entitled Wherever you may wish to go, know I’ve already arrived. There is a satellite image of Antarctica, a meteorological image of an atmospheric river flowing towards the Antarctic, and an image entitled Beginnings to Ends: Underground and Undersea: mapping at a molecular level the lead dust from the mineral load of Broken Hill, which is printed onto cushions on which viewers can sit to watch a 3-D video showing the locations of Broken Hill mining sites and the underground ore deposits.
Penelope Cain, Ice-told stories through layers of dust, installation view Post Office Projects 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition thus depicts scientifically the flow of mining dust from its source to the Antarctic and sets the imagery within a domestic setting as if to sanitise the process and commodify and even glorify the extracted minerals. The choice of the mid-twentieth century interior design of the furnishings is intended to reflect the moment of transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene eras, when the effects of human activity on the environment became measurable.
Penelope Cain, who has a background in biological science, brings art and science together in this powerful statement about the impact of mining on the planetary environment. The colonisation of Wilyakali Country to establish the Broken Hill mine 150 years ago is an important subtext — the colonisation of Country, the chemical and then physical colonisation of Antarctica and the subjugation and despoiling of the environment may be seen as parallel processes. Cain does not extend her critique beyond representing the facts, but viewers might draw conclusions about the march of technology, capitalism, colonisation, and modernity generally. The important message is that traces of human activity will shape the environment for millions of years.
Chris Reid
When: 20 Mar to 20 Apr
Where: Post Office Projects
Bookings: postofficeprojects.com.au
Penelope Cain, Ice told stories of lead and ropes.
Image courtesy of the artist.
