ETERNAL VOYAGE
CHON KEI LAM (JACKY)
ZIQIAN CHEN (JOHN)
YING LEE
FUTURE REPORT TO THE WESTERN PLAINS
They get out of a sedan, monitors in their hands. Lucid eyes in the sky record the vast grassland within a small frame. In the middle of the plain stands a colossal dam. Visitors wait in line on a boulder edge. Small dots drip on a giant white canvas down the slope. One man gets on his inflatable pizza, and stares into the mysterious flying eyes.
They follow the man down the river. Howling from the field catches his attention. He swims ashore, soaring and gliding from four-wheel drive making the field a stunt show on the Western Plain. Puddles wash away mud and rocks from tyres and form a meander on the floodplain. Over there is an irrigation arm. Crops, car culture and grassland thrive peacefully in the rain – a new paragon for the plain harmony.
The man lies down again, floating down along some young trees. The tranquil lullaby from wind and rain closes his eyes. Laughter and screams wake him up from a dream. He is surrounded by the continuous installation of floating sheds. Sleep, eat, recharge. He is ready to dive in again.
The group walks along the track, water slowly submerges over feet, puddles of water form a narrow creek in the Holocene period. They walk with their backs bent, trying to differentiate fresh faeces from the tiny million-year-old basalt rocks. One man walks towards the bushes on the left, birds on the wetland sing a symphony to his delight and glee.
The sky is dimming and it is time to leave. They drive again, a pungent smell drifts by and they stop. Here marks the entry of the Western Water Treatment Plant. Coastline swiftly recedes, ocean swallows the land, sewage canal becomes a tombolo that connects treatment pool islands. There they see the pizza man again. He floats along the canal to the worn-out pump station. Laughter and screams no longer exist, water infrastructure retires and third landscape begins. As the sun is fully set, bird symphony and his silhouette fade in the dark
They follow the man down the river. Howling from the field catches his attention. He swims ashore, soaring and gliding from four-wheel drive making the field a stunt show on the Western Plain. Puddles wash away mud and rocks from tyres and form a meander on the floodplain. Over there is an irrigation arm. Crops, car culture and grassland thrive peacefully in the rain – a new paragon for the plain harmony.
The man lies down again, floating down along some young trees. The tranquil lullaby from wind and rain closes his eyes. Laughter and screams wake him up from a dream. He is surrounded by the continuous installation of floating sheds. Sleep, eat, recharge. He is ready to dive in again.
The group walks along the track, water slowly submerges over feet, puddles of water form a narrow creek in the Holocene period. They walk with their backs bent, trying to differentiate fresh faeces from the tiny million-year-old basalt rocks. One man walks towards the bushes on the left, birds on the wetland sing a symphony to his delight and glee.
The sky is dimming and it is time to leave. They drive again, a pungent smell drifts by and they stop. Here marks the entry of the Western Water Treatment Plant. Coastline swiftly recedes, ocean swallows the land, sewage canal becomes a tombolo that connects treatment pool islands. There they see the pizza man again. He floats along the canal to the worn-out pump station. Laughter and screams no longer exist, water infrastructure retires and third landscape begins. As the sun is fully set, bird symphony and his silhouette fade in the dark
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE CATALOGUE
Aerial capture of existing water infrastructure that exist in and around the Western Plains of Victoria.
REFERENCE ATLAS
BAS PRINCEN - ARTIFICIAL ARCADIA
LUIGI GHIRRI - THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY
TACITA DEAN - A FUTURE REPORT TO SHEPPARTON
