Stream

Stream was inspired by the ongoing relationship of the Drying Green site to water, including its transformation from swamp and wetland to a dam for industry, through the current use as a storm water culvert and a return to wetland within the park.

– Kerrie Poliness, 2014

Stream consists of a series of intersecting straight lines forming a meandering glass pathway across the Drying Green Park. It produces a flexible diamond structure within the lawn, through the central paths and over raised, tiered rows of benches. The highly integrated artwork is embedded within the park design, materials and forms and becomes a functional secondary route through the park.

Stream’s geometry of waves reflects upon the manifestation of waves across a variety of phenomena such as water, sound, energy, light, geomorphology, and migration. Waves can relate to physical movement and transfer of energy, or can be a metaphor for the phases of history and culture, in constant motion and transition.

The artwork is conceptually linked to local ecology and history. Stream also refers to the active process of following physical and conceptual paths and making connections. The work evokes the flow and collection of knowledge, the forming of ideas, the evolution of stories, and the interlinking layers of history.

ARTIST

Kerrie Poliness is a leading contemporary Australian artist based in Melbourne. Her practice includes instructional Wall and Field Drawings, and research-based projects investigating the natural and social histories of place. Through these artworks and investigations into systems, repetition and symmetry of force Poliness embraces the differentiation of all objects in nature and the ironic impossibility of perfect mass production.

Wave Drawings, such as Stream, combine the two strands of the artist’s practice, research and drawing, and refer to the site’s geographical, ecological, historical, and social context.