BIN-OCULAR [Australian Crust]

Artist: Rose Woodcock

BIN-OCULAR is a pun on the word 'bottle' in Japanese (bin) and a reference to how binocular (3D) vision is assumed to give an acute (real) view of the world. 'Crust' refers to how the mineral resources sector (and some national governments) typically treat soil as some annoying object in the way of extracting iron ore and coal. But soil is the Earth's living'skin'and all terrestrial life depends on it.

BIN-OCULAR is about our relationship with the soil. It explores the geological and cultural histories of the Merri Creek region in northern suburban Melbourne (Australia) with reference to the politics of White Australia. Before European settlement, Merri Creek was home to the aboriginal Wurundjeri-willam people. From 1835 subdivision of land in the region was followed by rapid expansion of industries around quarrying, brickmaking and farming into the late 1800s. This brought housing, transport and commercial development, all of which served to scatter, bury or remove the traces of aboriginal presence in the region.

One day while walking along the Merri Creek, I found a whole, unbroken, brown bottle of White King bleach half-buried in the soil. In BIN-OCULAR, the 'skin' of the Merri Creek gazes down upon the impotent White King through two broken lenses: the scene and its sad histories imperfectly rendered in stereoscopic 'binocular' 3D.