Artist: Fiona Lee and Aaron Crowe
Artwork Name: High Tide
Medium: powder coated aluminium. 4m tall.
Date coming: late 2024
A stranded buoy; it’s bright, rigid and floating in the air, held aloft by its chain. It’s a nod to the rich maritime history of the lake yet whimsical and out of context. The buoy lingers on the high tide line where the lake’s water level is predicted to rise. It marks a new kind of danger; a future shift in the way people understand and interact with the lake. There are dualities; it’s a blurring of the line between the land and the water and it appears joyful yet dangerous. On the lake bed we stand and look up at the larger than life size buoy. “How did it come to be here?” It prompts questions of risk and vulnerability through its position and weight. Is this an isolated danger?
Fiona Lee is a multi-disciplinary artist, climate justice activist and bushfire survivor working across sculpture, installation, photography and video. In mid 2021 Fiona completed a 12-month Bushfire Affected Artist residency at The Creator Incubator in Newcastle where she shaped works from her home’s scorched remnants that spoke to both her personal loss and the impact of climate change on us all.
Fiona is collaborating on this project with Aaron Crowe, masters of architecture student at the University of Newcastle (UoN), exhibiting sculptor.
Fabrication by Tom Ireland.
Assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body and by the NSW Government through Create NSW.