This document provides a summary of 10 artworks that provide context for the project "Waste in Place: The McRobies Gully Tip as Landscape". The artworks are divided into two sections: 1) "Framing Waste", which discusses works that have used waste as a device to critique social, economic and environmental perspectives; and 2) "Transformational Relations", which discusses works that have sought to provoke consideration of human relations with animals, objects or place. The works discussed use a variety of media including sculpture, photography, video and installation. They address issues such as waste and consumption, human impact on the environment, and complex relationships between humans, objects and sites. The document concludes that these artworks

1. Felix Wilson 1
Artefact Survey
The project Waste in Place: The McRobies Gully Tip as Landscape will use
representations of the McRobies Gully landfill site in South Hobart to explore
contemporary understandings of landscape and its relationship to the
aesthetics of human and non-human relations.
Humans, animals, birds and others interact in ways that challenge
conventional understandings of ecology on the site. The project will develop
representations of the site and the relations occurring there that afford
possibilities for recalibrating shared aesthetic understandings of waste and
relations between human and non-human.
This artefact survey discusses works by ten artists that provide context for the
project. The first section, framing waste discusses art practices that have used
waste as a device for discussing and critiquing existing social, economic, and
environmental perspectives. Section two, transformational relations takes a
broader view and discusses works that have sought to provoke consideration
of the place of human beings and their relations to animals, objects, or place.
The conclusion briefly discusses the implications of the works discussed for
the practical and theoretical aspects of the project.

2. Felix Wilson 2
Framing Waste

3. Felix Wilson 3
Arman (b. Armand Pierre Fernandez) Poubelle 1, 1960, Household garbage
in a plastic box, 20,5 x 28,1 x 5,1 inches, viewed 21 April 2013,
<http://www.arman-studio.com/RawFiles/000852.html>.
French artist Arman’s Poubelle I is a plastic container holding household
waste.
Arman’s work uses the the raw materials of the waste of a French household,
and like Italo Calvino’s essay La Poubelle Agréée (2009) he uses this to
explore issues of cultural value, materiality and the metaphysical
transformation an object undergoes when it becomes waste.
The presentation of such mundane materials as art was intended as a
deliberate provocation to conventional artistic values and practices, following
Duchamp (Alfred 2012). It provides a foundation that many artists working
with waste have built upon, and although formally different from many later
works, it seems to prefigure the concerns of a later generation of artists who
used waste to explore issues related to human impact and environmental
change.
This work presents the viewer with what was intended to be removed from
view, challenging perceptions of artistic practice and the relationship of
people and objects. For the McRobies Gully Project, this provides a
foundational example of how waste can be used to examine wider concerns.

4. Felix Wilson 4
Muniz, V, Marat (Sebastião), 2009, photographic print, dimensions unknown,
viewed 23 April 2013, <http://vikmuniz.net/wp-
content/uploads/2012/01/Marat-Sebastiao-61x79.jpg>.
Brazilian artist Vik Muniz’s Marat (Sebastião) is a photograph of garbage
arranged to form an image, based on a photograph made by the artist, in the
style of David’s Marat, of a garbage picker on a Rio de Janeiro landfill site.
The documentary Waste Land (Walker 2010) followed Muniz as he worked
with a group of garbage pickers. By photographing them striking poses from
historically significant art works and then recreating the images on a large
scale using garbage collected by them, Muniz engaged them in the history of
art and cultural production and by returning the profits from the sale of the
works at auction he provided a means for them to change their lives.
The complex relations between art history, social activism and artistic
practice embodied in this project provide a rich example of the use of waste
in art to challenge and attempt to change existing social conditions. The
focus on the social aspects of waste differs from the intent of the McRobies
Gully project, however the dissolving of the human figure into the ground of
waste in Muniz’s image suggests complex relationships between humans and
waste objects that the project seeks to explore.

5. Felix Wilson 5
Chris Jordan, Untitled (from series Midway: Message from the Gyre), 2009,
photographic print, dimensions unknown, viewed 23 April 2013,
<http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000478%2019x25>.
United States artist Chris Jordan’s photographs represent the human impact
on the environment by depicting dead albatross on a remote atoll.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an enormous collection of plastic debris
in the Pacific Ocean. It is picked up by albatross feeding in the area and fed
to their chicks, often causing death. Jordan’s intent is to raise awareness of
the problem, however in representing the problem visually it is simplified;
recent research has shown that some species benefit from the increased
plastic (Goldstein, Rosenberg & Cheng 2012).
Jordan’s work deliberately confronts the viewer, instead of waste contained
by Perspex as in Arman’s Poubelle I, the waste is in the ‘container’ of an
Albatross corpse. The use of an aerial perspective is similar to Vik Muniz’s
depictions of waste, however Jordan’s image brings the viewer closer and
reveals our complicity by emphasising familiar plastic objects.
Birds are highly culturally resonant and Jordan’s use of the albatross suggests
that depicting highly symbolic non-human species can engage viewers in
ways that depicting objects don’t, suggesting that depicting the birds and
animals that use the site can draw viewers into a complex narrative about
waste and human impact.

6. Felix Wilson 6
Burtynsky, E, China Recycling #5, Phone Dials, Zeguo, Zhejiang Province,
2004, photographic print, dimensions unknown, viewed 24 April 2013,
<http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/WORKS/China/>.
Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky’s photograph of telephone dials at a
Chinese recycling facility addresses issues of human impact on the
environment.
In Burtynsky’s images China, which has rapidly become the largest exporter
of consumer goods in the world (Yueh 2010) becomes a symbol of human
the impact of global consumerism. Burnett (2010) suggests Burtynsky’s
Chinese images have a monumental quality, in their depiction of the sheer
scale and materiality of waste they suggest overwhelming forces beyond the
agency of individuals.
This vision of waste and environmental destruction on an enormous scale
cannot be applied to the McRobies Gully site, which is modest in size and in
close proximity to significant remnant vegetation. Rather than focussing on
overwhelming impact and scale the project will explore the subtle relations
between humans and non-humans occurring on the site, these are aspects of
waste that Burtynsky’s work tends to ignore.

7. Felix Wilson 7
Hugo, P, Aissah Salifu, 2010, Photographic print, dimensions unknown.
Viewed 23 April 2013, <http://www.pieterhugo.com/permanent-error/>.
South African artist Pieter Hugo’s Aissah Salifu depicts a lone human figure in
a gloomy and fume-ridden atmosphere on a site in Ghana that is used for
recycling electronic waste, combining a mediaeval vision of hell with more
contemporary dystopian imagery.
Hugo uses a similar strategy to Jordan; including familiar objects such as
computer monitors relate the scene to the viewer’s use and disposal of
technology. This emphasis on relations is heightened by the accusatory stare
of the subject. Lepawsky and Mather (2011) argue against conceptions of
electronic waste that do not take into account the complexity of the networks
of production and consumption of objects, pointing out there is no clear
beginning or end to the use of materials. Accepting this, Hugo’s work
becomes an image from a point in time of global production systems,
suggesting the damage to people and animals inherent in this complex
network.
For the McRobies Gully Project, this work suggests that objects familiar to the
viewer can draw them directly into relations with the subject of the
representation, potentially to consider their own role in the network of
production and consumption. The emphasis on the negative aspects is not
something that the project aims at, but these are inherent in any discussion
of waste.

8. Felix Wilson 8
Transformational Relations

9. Felix Wilson 9
Smithson, R, Asphalt Rundown, Rome, Italy, 1969, Sculptural work,
dimensions variable, viewed 24 April 2013,
<http://www.robertsmithson.com/earthworks/asphalt.htm>.
United States artist Robert Smithson’s Asphalt Rundown was a performance
in which the artist poured liquid asphalt down a hill on the outskirts of Rome.
In direct contrast to Arman, who contains waste, Smithson was interested in
the entropic release and movement of raw materials (Casey 2005). Although
the asphalt in Smithson’s work is not waste, by pouring it into the quarry and
allowing it to take form over the ground’s surface, Smithson’s gesture relates
directly to landfill practices and to the quotation from Heraclitus he
references in A Sedimentation of the Mind (Smithson & Flam 1996):
The most beautiful world is like a heap of rubble tossed down in confusion
Smithson’s work that involved directly altering the surface of the earth
challenged contemporary environmental thinking about how human beings
should relate to land and his exploration of relations between site and non-
site provide a framework for thinking about the relations between a gallery
site and the represented site in the McRobies Gully project, as well as for
reconsidering waste as something purposeful.

10. Felix Wilson 10
Baltz, L, South Corner, Riccar America, 3184 Pullman, Costa Mesa, 1974,
Photographic print, dimensions unknown, viewed 25 April 2013,
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/06/topographics.html>.
United States artist Lewis Baltz’s photograph South Corner, Riccar America,
3184 Pullman, Costa Mesa depicts a recently constructed industrial facility in
California.
The image was included in the 1975 New Topographics exhibition that
marked a significant shift in photographic representations of the
environment. The use of large format camera and black and white film
provide a stark, minimalist quality with subtle tonal gradations. The imagery
represents a significant and deliberate break from established traditions of
landscape photography of the American West.
Greg Foster-Rice (2010) argues that this work represents a systematic
approach to landscape imagery. Systems analysis was an established mode
of analysing economic and environmental relations when Baltz made the
work and the emphasis on diagrammatic modes of analysis fed into a
systematic aesthetic that criticised the economic rationality behind the
architecture and land use practices that were becoming dominant.
Baltz’s work provides an example of photographic imagery affording
consideration of systematic relations between the site pictured and the wider
social context, and in this way is highly relevant to the McRobies Gully
Project.

11. Felix Wilson 11
Selig, S, Rivers Recording the Universe (Tokyo) (installation view), 2008-9,
Installation: dimensions variable, viewed 18 April 2013,
<http://www.milanigallery.com.au/artwork/rivers-recording-universe-tokyo-
5>.
Australian artist Sandra Selig’s video based installation Rivers recording the
universe (Tokyo) uses multiple screens in a darkened space to create an
immersive experience of the cosmic.
The installation consists of multiple semi-transparent screens hung at varying
heights and angles in a darkened space, these receive images from
projectors mounted out of sight. The videos are looped recordings of the
surface of bodies of water in Tokyo, which reflect lights from the city in
shimmering patterns. The work offers experience rather than didactic
information transfer, allowing viewers to reflect on their own perception and
sense of time and space. The title of the work alludes to a particular site, but
also to the cosmic scale evoked by the experiential aspects of the work.
This work offers a poetic and metaphorical approach to issues of scale and
human relations with space and light that resonate with possibilities. The
implications of this work for the project are that metaphor and poetic
interpretation of a site can provide a viewer with an experience that
encourages deep reflection. The use of video and the display strategies used
are both excellent examples of how an artist can transform perception and
engage viewers with complex issues using simple apparatus.

12. Felix Wilson 12
Coates, M. Dawn Chorus (still from video), 2007, Multiple videos, dimensions
variable, viewed 21 April 2013,
<http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/images/exhibitions/chaffinch1141.p
ng>.
British artist Marcus Coates’ video work Dawn Chorus explores human and
non-human relations using bird song.
The artist made recordings of wild birds then slowed them enough to allow
individual members of an amateur choir to sing along. Each singer was
recorded in their home or workplace around dawn, and sang the call of a
particular species. The result is a series of video recordings of this singing,
which are played back at the speed of the original bird song, allowing the
audience to experience humans singing indistinguishably from birds.
Coates explores the blurred line dividing humans from animals, deftly
managing to engage audiences with humour while provoking consideration
of the role of animals in human lives and human connections to site and
environment.
The relevance of this work to the project is in its entangling of human and
non-humans. Like Chris Jordan, Coates recognises the symbolic importance
of birds to human cultures, and uses this to engage viewers with a powerful
metaphor about coexistence and the commonalities of birds and human
beings. This work offers possibilities for representation or interaction with the
birds and animals of the McRobies Gully site in the project.

13. Felix Wilson 13
Yun, C, Constellation (installation view), 2006, installation: dimensions
variable, viewed 23 April 2013, <http://www.chuyun.net/>.
Chinese artist Chu Yun’s Constellation is an installation consisting of
household electrical appliances in a darkened space.
As the viewer enters the space, small coloured lights appear at varied depths
in the space. This produces a mildly disorienting effect; a loss of scale, and it
is only with the gradual transition in the viewer’s perceptual processes that
the mundane quality of the room is apparent; the lights are simply the small
standby power indicators on a range of household electrical appliances.
Standby power has become an environmental concern; some research
indicates that up to one quarter of a household’s power consumption may be
from appliances on standby. (Clement, Pardon & Driesen 2007; Ross & Meier
2001). Reading Yun’s work in this light gives it a more ominous tone, however
this is not an explicit aim of the artist, the interaction between objects and
human perception seems to be at the core of the work.
Yun’s articulation of multiple concerns about human presence, perception
and relations with familiar objects suggests possibilities for the poetic
interpretation of the complex relations on the McRobies Gully site. The use
of familiar objects echoes Arman’s use of the mundane to challenge
perceptions, although the container for Yun’s work is a darkened room, both
artist’s work suggests the power of unmediated objects to invoke meaning
and to experience transformation.

14. Felix Wilson 14
To conclude, the works discussed in the first section Framing Waste are
thematically relevant and provide a window into artistic practices involving
waste, highlighting photographic work that has dealt with waste as an
environmental and social issue. These works tend to use waste to challenge
existing understandings of consumption and value and to highlight
environmental damage associated with waste.
This project is grounded in a photographic approach, however experiments
with video and sound and other techniques are ongoing, and the project’s
final practical outcomes have not been decided. The works in the second
section, Transformational Relations include a range of technical approaches
that set a tone for how these experiments might be presented and resolved.
These works share common concerns but they are broad, framing questions
in modes that reveal complexity rather than promote didactic simplification.
By engaging with perceptual processes and awareness of the nature of our
understanding through diverse practical strategies they implicate and
entangle the viewer in a complex mesh of coexistence.
The project’s aims are to create a body of work in response to the site that
affords new possibilities for imagining the site as a place of relations between
human and non-human. The artworks discussed above, read as a whole, give
glimpses of possibilities for how to achieve this.

15. Felix Wilson 15
References
Alfred, P 2012, 'Arman', Grove Art Online, viewed 01/05/2013,
<http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T004080%3E.
Burnett, C 2010, 'New Topographics Now', in G Foster-Rice & J Rohrbach
(eds), Reframing the New Topographics, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago.
Calvino, I 2009, 'La Poubelle Agréée', in The Road to San Giovanni, Penguin,
London.
Casey, ES 2005, Earth-mapping: artists reshaping landscape, University of
Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minn.
Clement, K, Pardon, I & Driesen, J 2007, 'Standby power consumption in
Belgium', in Electrical Power Quality and Utilisation, 2007. EPQU 2007. 9th
International Conference on, pp. 1-4.
Foster-Rice, G 2010, '"Systems Everywhere" New Topographics and Art of
the 1970s', in G Foster-Rice & J Rohrbach (eds), Reframing the New
Topographics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Goldstein, MC, Rosenberg, M & Cheng, L 2012, 'Increased oceanic
microplastic debris enhances oviposition in an endemic pelagic insect',
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Lepawsky, J & Mather, C 2011, 'From beginnings and endings to boundaries
and edges: rethinking circulation and exchange through electronic waste',
Area, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 242-249.
Ross, J & Meier, A 2001, 'Whole-house measurements of standby power
consumption', in Energy Efficiency in Household Appliances and Lighting,
Springer, pp. 278-285.
Smithson, R & Flam, JD 1996, Robert Smithson, the collected writings,
University of California Press, Berkeley.
Walker, L 2010, Waste Land, DVD, 2011. Distributed by New Video Group.
Yueh, L 2010, The Economy of China, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.