Terraformed presents newly commissioned work from Australian sculptor Nicholas Burridge which continues his material investigation into volcanic rock basalt. Here in the National Art Glass Gallery, Burridge’s work speaks to deep time, geological forces and the culpability of the human hand in seismic transformations now underway. This body of work offers a shift in direction from Burridge’s earlier explorations from ‘ecology’ to ‘industrialisation’.
This exhibition begins with a gesture. Take an igneous rock and re-animate it into lava using modern technology. Have it flow across the landscape as it once did thousands of years ago: tame the volcano. It is a symbolic action, that simultaneously remembers the geologic past and exploits it. A ritualized contradiction. This molten rock has transformed this planet through continental drift, super volcanoes and climate change. But here the agent of change has shifted. The human hand, not the planet, is responsible for this story.
