video recce, Melbourne, Footscray Wharf, Maribyrnong River, 13 April 2010 - binaural sound

Starting at Footscray Wharf at 1pm, a notice by the river in front of the Footscray Arts Centre informs with historical photographs and text about the history of the river:

Footscray Wharf. Remnants of an industrial past.  In the 19th Century the Maribyrnong was known as the 'Saltwater River'.  Its west bank was a hub of activity with extensive wharves reflecting the river's importance as an industrial transport route.

The sky is cloudy grey, the river blue grey green: a saltwater river. The medium breeze creates consistent ripples.  The river’s steely surface seems reflective, but in the grey uniform light it is unyielding.  Starfish cling to submerged sections of mooring pole.  Sounds of present industry and its trucks reverberate from across the river, across the Footscray Road bridge, across Hopetoun Bridge...

video recce, Melbourne, North Wharf, River Yarra/Docklands, 5 April 2010 - binaural sound

 
Late afternoon (16:00 - 17:30) Closer reflections, detail fragmented, architectural form becomes liquified.  Low wind, low ripples. Binaural sound, some auto-level distortion/dropout due to breeze, headphones recommended.

Earlier works around water

Periscope 180° super 8/1992 

At sea when it began: three months of water, and then down the west coast of Australia, nowhere else to go.  Three months of water and now a land-locked mast.  A western setting sun.  By the wharf, down at the docks, the pipes, the pipes are calling another aching load… and every day after that I went to the beach. 

Pools Between Land super 8 - video/1990
Still water, pooling water, not spilt like on land, collects in depression.

m-dot.report video/1991
… residents of the village of Elwood and other areas around Post Philip Bay, Melbourne, Australia, reported seeing a flying object hovering at about 250 metres above the water, 500 metres offshore at Point Ormond. 

Harmonic Maheno (Harmonic Three Three) super 8/1991 

As we drove north up the eastern side of the Island we came across the rusting hulk of a ship wreck; one of the more accessible of many such wrecks dotted around the Australian coastline.

Canary Wharf E14, 1 March 2010

Preliminary observations at Canary Wharf.

In spite of the number
and amount
of areas of public water

(which is
perhaps
not so public)

photographing buildings
reflected
in the once quays and docks
proved difficult























in particular the central and iconic One Canada Square.












Rippled reflection
perhaps caused
as it is today
by the wind

is the best that can be managed.


















In a way

perhaps

symbolic in its rippledness
of the critical aversion to representational imagery in photography

(as promulgated by religions such as Islam, Presbyterianism, Structural/Materialism and Homeland Security).

Perhaps the best view would be reflected
in the public waters of the Thames
[next stop Canada Water].

























Clustered buildings at ground level
afford
a view of the buildings
only as unfeasibly towering
adjacent structures
denying visual purchase on architecture.


As determined plan forms
streets
passageways
squares
plazas
steps
seemingly
to optimise the flow of traffic
human and vehicular.
















The distant view
the view visible from all over London
is
(designed to be)
the most impressive.




And then
back in Bermondsey
as Jamaica Road recedes into the distance
on the closest we have to a horizon here

there it is


still

symbolic

upright...