numinous
aqua:terra:astra
Context: An aerial photograph of Perth, Australia shows the Swan River meandering through the land, reminiscent of a serpent with its hea resting at Perth. Numinous aqua: terra: astra takes this aerial image of the river and embeds it into Forrest Place, the new civic space in Perth. During the day this meandering river will appear to be made of water reflecting the sky and as the sun descends it will slowly turn into the Milky Way—through a series of fibre optic stars that change and move through the night to be born again as a river of sky at dawn.
Numinous aqua: terra: astra references the cosmos and our inter-connectedness to the natural world while honouring the Aborigine Dreamtime and Rainbow Serpent mythologies. The work connects the viewer to the river and the stars as well as the vast amounts of water stored in natural underground fresh water reserves under Perth—some of this water is 40,000 years old.
Forrest Place has a history of being a meeting place of people and this public art project invites viewers to continue meeting in a familiar place to celebrate their connections to the larger Universe.