Subsurface Escarpment, 2023, plywood, ten minute single channel video
Subsurface Escarpment, 2023, plywood, ten minute single channel video
Subsurface Escarpment, 2023, plywood, single channel video
Subsurface Escarpment, 2023, plywood, single channel video
Subsurface Escarpment, 2023, plywood, single channel video
Subsurface Escarpment is an architectural intervention and digital installation that examines the site of the Cadia Hill gold and copper mine, the largest open-cut mine in New South Wales, situated on Wiradjuri land. Wedged between the gallery’s existing walls, the structure is crafted from CNC-milled formations based on lidar datasets representing the retaining benches supporting the mine’s structural integrity. These 3D scans, digitally inverted, materialize deconstructed negatives of the unearthed material from the past three decades.
The overlaying video animation projects a point cloud elevation model of the two-kilometre deep pit. By inverting the architectural structures that have historically supported ongoing extraction, the work aims to identify latent possibilities for remediating environmental damage caused by mining activities.
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Blake is an artist living on Darug land and working on Gadigal land. His practice is concerned with the framing of sites of extraction and their ecological and social impact. Through the use of architectural, geotechnical tools and installation he inverts these systems, simulating a speculative virtual site remediation.