The Road

The Road is a 15 minute video art work which uses projection to explore the sensory unraveling we experience as we move from the structured sensations of urban landscapes, to the transcendental expansiveness of ancient deserts.

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The project was produced during the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown, when most people were stuck inside their homes, and their heads, for months unable to experience the relief that open spaces can offer. If the coast is our leisure space and the desert the playground of the mind, then it is the open road which holds us mesmerized.

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At first we hold onto the people and places we have left behind, but they fade as our thoughts dissolve into the vast and limitless landscapes before us. Our mental clutter falls away and the road becomes a thread between worlds. 

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The never ending space of inner Australia forces an inner observation. We begin asking ourselves fundamental questions about our life's journey while gradually surrendering to the dance between day and night, dark and light. No longer pressured by time or people we experience waves of chaotic madness, brain noise and discomfort, eventually giving way to bliss, and the immense power and spirit of nature. 

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For two decades Shez Cairney has delighted in delving deeper into the heart of nature, driving along endless bush tracks and distancing herself from the familiarity of people and towns. She is a neuroscientist and photographer living and working in Alice Springs.

It was the observations of her own mind that helped form the basis for The Road projection.

 

The video imagery was captured during her various trips from Melbourne to Mparntwe-Alice Springs. See stills below. 

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Collaborative work by

Shez Cairney, Trevor Almeida, Kate Follington, Original Music by Jody Galvin, Mung Balding and Rob McPherson (Garagee)