PURE ISOLATION

2010, Oil on Linen, 100 x 100cm

Finalist, the Norville Art Prize 2008

In his  book, “Tyranny of Distance,” Professor Geoffrey Blainey argued that Australia’s geographical remoteness has been central in shaping our history and identity - and how it may continue to influence our future.

In the digital age, where the world’s information is just a mouse click away, where news is beamed around the globe 24 hours a day, where stock prices from any exchange around the world can be tracked in real time, where telephone links from the most remote and hostile locations are achievable, the question may now be not how distance shaped Australia’s history, but how communications will influence it's future. 

However the concept of the ‘global village’ is reliant on the quality of the communications that bind it. With all the recent debate over the form, ownershipand extent of Australia’s future communications networks, the question of isolation has never been more relevant.