the field (2016)
Super 8 film
4:38 min
4:38 min
The Field records the melting and breaking of twelve ice replicas of 155-millimeter artillery shells within one day. The shells, one of the commonest forms of arms in international warfare, are made of water and spice water to represent the many cultural initiators of war. The film begins in the darkness before dawn and ends when all the ice shells have disintegrated. The work, made at North Head the geographic and historic threshold to the city of Sydney, suggests the dignity of the human attempt to reconcile, but also the sadness and random futility of war.