In HIDDEN 2014, Rookwood Cemetery, Lidcombe

Materials: earth, hessian, wood, rope.

Dimensions: 3x (400 x1800 x700 mm)

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The three mounds of earth wrapped in hessian and bound with rope were inspired by a visit to a cemetery in Mexico where, amongst the coloured concrete graves, were other grave-mounds of earth covered with pine needles. They punctured into my psyche that sense of presence and absence- that transitional moment of being in the world to being in the ground -a sense of a body still fresh, not yet decomposed, shrouded by earth. Their anonymity held a raw immediacy – no name, no personal identifying details-a body once here; now a body interred.

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White wooden pegs, similar to those at the ends of rows of graves, staked out a wider area beyond the bags, to give the appearance that they are part of a newly demarcated zone for extending the existing grave complex. The hessian covered mound sat on either sat on either side of the road at the end of rows of graves. Each one bore a stenciled number corresponding to the number of the grave that would have occupied that site. Beneath the rope binding, one could partially discern text referring to the cause of death