Basalt & Asphalt
Finn Ferrier >

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Written by Anna Parlane

This month at Window Onsite, Finn Ferrier presents Basalt & Asphalt, a new work which explores the transient nature of urban roadways and structures. Ferrier demonstrates how geography is constantly required to accommodate humanity’s bent for alterations. Sites are categorised and recategorised; the city eats itself and is remade. Any given geographical location may cycle through a bewildering array of identities over its history: volcano, military barracks, park, air-raid shelter, university, art gallery. The history of the site where Window now stands is a particularly rich one. Above ground, the sole remaining trace of the site’s most illustrious incarnation, as the location of the Albert Military Barracks, is the fragment of basalt wall running down beside the Library building. Below ground, ghostly traces left by past activity can be read by educated archaeological eyes.

In Ferrier’s installation and performance, the seemingly immobile stone cladding of the urban jungle is crumbled, re-sited and re-formed. Perhaps with a hint of tongue-in-cheek, Ferrier presents himself as enthusiast, the rock-collector par excellence. In the manner of a historic house museum – that strange creation of heritage tourism, theatrically and perpetually a static representation of itself – Ferrier presents his collection of urban rock fragments. Lifted from the mill of the city environment, carefully labeled with collection date and location, these fragments are testament to past configurations of the city.