Siloscopes
Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen
Galvanised sheet metal, gold-leaf, fired earthenware,
Dimensions: 2.4 H x 3 W x 3 D (m)
Forbes Hospital, NSW
This public artwork was made for the entrance of the Forbes district Hospital was developed through a residency with a local farmer, Dan Herbert. Dan generously hosted us and our one year old on his farm while we developed ideas in conversation with him.
In the agricultural lands surrounding the town of Forbes in Central-West NSW the tools required to manage the land are vast and complex. Grain silos are connected to many elements of farm life, used differently throughout the seasons and the cycles of farming. Storing seeds for the next planting, storing grain from harvest, storing feed for livestock.
Farmers have a fundamental connection to the weather and the elements. The people we met would compare rainfall experienced in the different localities down to the millimetre and the hour. Of course this attention was required as the rain, along with sun and soil, plays such a crucial part in the growth of crops and pasture.
So while the silos store grain for seed and for feed, it can also be said that the grain itself was storing the power of the sky, the sun, the rain as well as the nutrients of the soil.
Siloscopes enables visitors to reflect on these elements of life on the land. The work invites people to interact with a humble seed silo in such a way as to transform it from an ordinary piece of equipment into a device which makes visible some of these rich connections beneath the surface.
