All the sequences have been composited and animated from images taken in and around the Packing Shed at Hart’s Mill in Port Adelaide / Yartapuulti on the unceded lands of the Kaurna people. Many of the sheds in the area – for boats, for produce, for factories, for storage – have been, or soon will be, demolished to make way for so-called developments, mostly expensive apartment blocks totally out of character with local environment. In the process, both the natural history and the human history of the area are greatly diminished.
None of the images in the video are as they seem in real life. Instead, we imagine what could be if “progress” proceeds at its current rate. What will remain? How will the survivors operate? Where will the ghosts of our history end up?
The soundtrack has been created from a single spoken sample of the word “demolished”.
DEMOLISHED was created for SHED, a group exhibition at the Packing Shed, Hart’s Mill, Port Adelaide, curated by Tony Kearney, as part of the 2024 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Ian Gibbins is a poet, video artist and electronic musician living in South Australia. His poetry has been widely published in Australia and overseas, and includes four books, two of which are collaborations with visual artists. His award-winning poetry videos, video art and soundscapes have been exhibited to acclaim at festivals, installations, galleries and high-visibility public art displays around the world. Until he retired in 2014, Ian was an internationally recognised neuroscientist and Professor of Anatomy at Flinders University, South Australia, having originally trained as a zoologist.