Lake Mungo 2005

paintings, works on paper

Wombat Night, Eagle Day, Starry Night, Rainy Day, Lizard Night, Sun Disc Day, Emu Night, Emu Day, Fiery Night, Windy Day

Since the discovery of Mungo man and Mungo woman in the 1980's, Lake Mungo has been recognised as a particularly important archeological site. The lake is no longer full of water, but the area has many echoes of the time that it was. It is the earliest known site in the world where ritual burial took place, and as such is the earliest evidence of belief in something 'beyond'. The wind has revealed different layers of coloured sand that mark different layers of time, red being the oldest. Extremely old bones mingle with the most recent surprisingly close to the surface - it is not unfeasible to tread on them. Sand still gathers around trees and solidifies there, becoming eroded through rain, forming the strange 'lunar' landscape of the Walls of China. For me, layers of time seemed to endlessly absorb and reabsorb into each other in a motion not unlike that of the tides. Within this motion, I tried to evoke the changing rhythm of night and day by making one work for each night and each day I was there.

Micky Allan, 2008