Rory Chellew

Rory Chellew

Digital Prints and Video

My final artworks will be focussing on the conceptual basis of the landscape holding scars which reflect the nature of the people, industry and nations that inhabited it. They will specifically explore the treatment of land as solely a resource from the 19^th -20^th century and looking at the modern treatment of the climate and environment for resources. 

This was conveyed in Artwork 1 through the subject matter of the Latrobe Valley mines and power stations, which has a rich history of the area’s development, demolition, redevelopment, and decline. The idea of this artwork was to convey the detrimental inevitability of these kinds of mines and developments throughout history, using the Yallourn Open Cut to show the gouge that this industry has made on the land and climate while also demonstrating that the power station and coal mines have provided most of the Victoria’s power for over 100 years. 

In Artwork 2, I have focussed on the logging industry, specifically pine plantation, and the reduction of natural tree population via logging, to replant and sustain an introduced pine population, which provides a faster growing, but albeit an alien species into the Australian environment. This idea was communicated through documenting pine plantations in rural Victoria, in specific the site of the Tanjil-East Plantation.