If:then – Installation view. Ardiuno Uno microprocessor, programmable LEDs, aluminum channel, 16 perspex blocks, acrylic medium, slide images
Hanging by a Thread exhibition at Alternating Currents Arts Space, High Street Windsor, February to March 2021
If:then is a work inspired by the personal scientific image collection of Dr Edward Higgs, who worked across South Australia as a plant biologist through the 1960s to 1980s. Higgs word focussed on improving the productivity of introduced grass species, by improving their drought and salt tolerance. If:then fast forwards the viewer to a dystopian world where grasses no longer grow at all, and a field of grass is recreated based on these found images as a kind of museum exhibit, but without the context and ecosystem references available to us today.
If:then challenges us to ask question about the scientific method and our personal investment in the status quo. How do we value nature? How can we understand the consequences of our actions/inactions? What is the value of a life’s work? If we believe it then will we see it?
Paul Duldig 