WOODLAND
4th - 29th September 2000 during the Olympics
The Downing Centre, Sydney Law Courts
The corner of Elizabeth and Liverpool Streets, Sydney.

Open to the public: 24hrs 7days

Major Sponsors include:
Air New Zealand, Australian High Commission London, The National Art School Sydney, Fosters International and Octopus Publishing Group.
NB: All books used in these installations were 'returns' to be pulped.

Photography by Murray van der Veer

WOODLAND

'Woodland', represents Part Two of a collaborative project by Maslen & Mehra.

Part One entitled 'Gorge' was held at VOID Contemporary Art Space in London. The installation transformed VOID into a fictitious landscape - eroded rock faces created out of layers of books, some reaching over eight feet tall, from which translucent, polyester resin plant forms emerged.

Woodland - exhibited at the Downing Centre, corner of Liverpool and Elizabeth Streets in Sydney- was a natural progression from 'Gorge' but now, instead of the viewers walking through the tactile environment, they were able to walk 360 degrees around the series of self-contained window display units (approximately 650 square feet) to view a rolling landscape made from the same materials. The overall effect was like something out of a geological textbook - specimens of land contained in giant glass vitrines.

The context of this work plays an important role. Unlike 'Gorge', a gallery-based installation, Woodland was situated in a highly visible location in the centre of Sydney. The work hints at the displacement of nature in highly populated cities and the controlled artificial pockets of nature that are found in parks.