Michaela Gleave
Elemental Desires
2019
8m x 4m x 1.2m
Perspex, aluminium, RGB LED lights, custom illumination sequence
Permanent commission for the Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC
Photograph: courtesy Bendigo Art Gallery
Elemental Desires is a large-scale text work by artist Michaela Gleave, commissioned for the rooftop of the Bendigo Art Gallery.
Envisaged as a work in in two modes Elemental Desires shifts between light and dark, both physically from day to night, as well as symbolically through colour. Looming large over the rear of the building the work appears white-washed by sunlight during the day but comes alive at night. The words ELEMENTAL DESIRES are progressively illuminated, flicking initially from red through to yellow, growing in optimism as the shades lighten, before the sequence is reversed, golden yellow progressively deepening into deep blood red.
Taking as it’s starting point the historical and cultural climate from the 1850's onwards, the work considers the layered history of Bendigo: the massive impacts of the frontier wars and gold rush; the importance of migrant communities and increased travel; and the contemporary legacy of mining and on-going tensions of cultural diversity. The work makes reference to the changes in public attitude that made the advancement of industrialisation and colonialism possible, and the cultural imagery that documents this process.
Elemental Desires also considers the basic human traits that allow the duality in these situations to exist: the greed for wealth and gold is at times trumped by camaraderie and companionship; the passion that creates life is at times shadowed by the deemed necessity to take it away.
Specific to its context yet open ended in its possible interpretations, Elemental Desires is both a bold and dramatic statement artwork and a nuanced response to site. Glowing out into the night it is a contemplation of the elemental desires that drive us all.