This piece was part of Dirty Diesel & Dusty Deeds Exhibition held in May Space Gallery, Sydney

“The exploration of Broken Hill and Mildura follows on from previous work that came out of the deserts of North America. I was interested in the emptiness of these vast landscapes and the objects found within them, particularly those that speak of obsolescence and the passing of time. It was a natural progression to follow this journey closer to home. My partner is from Broken Hill so I was able to explore the town with local knowledge. I was inspired by films from my youth such as Mad Max and Wake in Fright, and how this landscape has been used similarly to the North American deserts as a representation of a post-apocalyptic world.

I was interested in the mined landscape in relation to previously explored locations such as the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley which are formed through very slow erosion. The large voids left in the ground from the open-cut mines are like scars in the earth becoming artificial canyons, and are a reminder of how we take from the earth.

Three hours down an undivided highway from Broken Hill is Mildura, where I did a residency at the Art Vault. It’s a barren road that is littered with road kill; I was intrigued by the animal carcasses and how they related to my images of stripped out car bodies and mechanical detritus.”

Paul White's art practice explores the everyday through pencil work on paper. He has an MFA (Art) from the renowned California Institute of the Arts and is a Samstag International Visual Arts Scholar. He has been awarded the Pollock-Krasner Grant, Metro Art Award, John Villiers Outback Art Prize, Omnia Art Award works on Paper and is a two-time winner of the Muswellbrook Art Prize works on paper. He has been a multiple finalist in other awards such as the Dobell Drawing Prize, National Works On Paper, Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Paul Guest Prize, Rick Amor Drawing Prize and Fishers Ghost prize, amongst others. He has works in the collections of Artbank, Newcastle Art Gallery, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Campbelltown Arts Centre, the Kedumba Collection and private collections

I am intrigued by obsolescence, the passing of time and the transformation associated with it. I am interested in how memory, place, and time shape us, and in examining particular moments in my personal history to map out a navigation and exploration of the world. Working only from photographs I have captured, these images represent fleeting autobiographical moments; however, I delight in the thorough investigation of these moments through my meditative pencil on paper process. My practice charts my movement in and around the world – from the far-reaching deserts of North West America, to the outback of Australia, to wrecked lapd cars in Los Angeles, to the pot plants in my own home.

My process of using pencil on paper in a meticulous and highly detailed manner is not only an attempt to gather every degree of detail from the image by conducting a thorough investigation into it, but also a way of slowing down the world with such a time-consuming process. By drawing attention to the landscape around me, I seek to examine the mark that humankind has left and is leaving on the world.

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