INSTALLATION
Drift + Trace, 2016.Installation, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Bronze, carbonized wood, vinyl tape, wood, found objects, paint, canvas, river rocks, rope.
Drift +Trace was an installation based on Hay’s experience of walking through parts of the old city of Chiang Mai with his friend, Richard, some odd dreams and an inability to make sense of time.
Hay used a camera LCD to create pathways through the exhibition space. The field of view of the LCD was used as a surveying device to plot and layer elements. Red lines, grids and objects were also determined by the LCD using the extremities of a 28mm point of view. An artist called Mike said the work had Lacanian references. Hay was not sure what he meant and stared at an indeterminate point in the middle distance.
Occupation, 2011. Installation, Kyoto, Japan. Paper card, string, reflective tape.
In 2011, Hay spent two months living in Kyoto and half of that time in a large traditional Japanese villa. The house and its surrounding garden in semi-rural Shugakuin contained a small tea house.The Fukushima Tsunami had recently happened and Japan was in a state of national grief. As an outsider to this collective emotion, Hay used the disused tea house as a site to make a number of small interventions. Occupation consisted of two components: a series of travel tags with the names of as many contemporary installation artists as he could remember and a large travel tag with a fluorescent square signifying the emptiness of the moment.
Loop was designed to create a performance space for two people. Intersecting paths between four steel buildings indicated an axis and a walking site. The work was activated by performers walking from one building to another, and through the use of convex mirrors and text, set up a system where 'the closer one gets the less one sees'.
This work was part of an exhibition to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race. The field of salt with it's schematic hull of iron filings was designed to consolidate over the period of the race. The salt caused the filings to oxidise and bond.
Big Place, 1993. Installation at PICA, Perth. Wood, paint,sand, polythene, glass, LEDs, found objects, anodised aluminium, bronze ingots, marble chips.
Big Place was the culmination of a number of trajectories that followed the Mabo decision. Hay had been wanting to make work that referenced the size of Australia both geographically and economically. As he was based in Perth, he used Western Australia with its massive mineral deposits and huge land mass with specific references to ownership, land rights and navigating territory. This work consisted of a large floor piece made from bronze ingots, works that made reference to North West Cape and questions around identity and the management of resources and equity.
Passport, 1993. Installation for ARX3, PICA, Graphite paint, vinyl letters, wood.
Passport was sited at the entrance to PICA and was a reference to immigration, entering the art zone and identity.
Towards Terra Nullius, 1992. Cast iron, Anodised aluminium, terrazzo, brass.
This work was commissioned by the Western Australian Government through it's Per Cent For Art Scheme. The installation consists of cast iron hulls, a large suspended boat made from anodised aluminium and four terrazzo site markers. It was a response to the Mabo decision and a reference to the early British settlers in Western Australia.
Waiting for a Sign, 1992. Terrazzo, brass.
Waiting for a Sign is a terrazzo map of the southern stars with an imaginary series of stars aligned to form the image of a chair. The work is sited in Joondalup train station in suburban Perth.
Transition, 1991. Installation for Central Spacious Location, PICA. Wood, sand, paint, water, video, nails, ciment fondue.
Transition is a work that was determined by the space it was shown in. A disused classroom was used to situate elements such as a video camera and monitor acting as surrogate teacher and students, nonsensical drawings and rote instructions on a blackboard.The elements of the work were placed according the the trajectory of the sun and resultant shadows within the space. The work spoke of the transition from old-fashioned school to contemporary art space and the clumsy shift from mechanical to digital age.
Light House, 1991. Installation for Perspecta 91. Wood, neon tubes, steel.
Light House was a work that made reference to domestic housing and the questionable health effects of electro-magnetic radiation from high voltage power lines. Neon tubes attached the house frame were designed to be activated by power lines directly above the house frame.
Crossing (with Laurens Tan), 1991. Installation at Curtin University, Perth. Found objects, pulverised rubber, chaff, rice, coins, cotton, ciment fondue.
Laurens Tan and Paul Hay made this collaborative work by bringing significant materials into the exhibition space and cooperatively installing elements that were either part of other works or a combination of both artist's materials. It was a work that referenced friendship and understanding.
Digging up the Past,(details) 1989. Installation for The Quarries, Mount Gambier. Limestone, barbed wire, clay, wood.
The Quarries was group exhibition of site-specific work in abandoned limestone quarries. Digging up the Past made reference to the original inhabitants of the region, the fossil record within the stone and a reminder of the way that history has many faces.
Hierarchy, 1986. Installation for Seven Out of Fourteen, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide. Plaster, fluorescent paint, UV light.
In an exhibition by members of SAW artists workshop, Hay used simple fantasy structures, fluorescent paint and an ultra violet light to reference the exclusivity of the art world and a function of that exclusion. The viewer was directed by chalk drawings on the floor to the read the work in one way. This was an impossible task.
The International Art Selectors Cup, 1985. Collaborative installation for The Table, Art Gallery of South Australia. Paint, paper, found object, lead, headphones, tape loop.
In this work a faux horse race was called. The race caller used the names of art stars from 1985 and gave them some startling descriptions. The race was heard via headphones placed on the table. Julian Schnabel won.
Boandik Lodge, 1983. Installation for Middle Earth, Warrnambool and Cockatoo Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania. Canvas, polythene, photographs, black granite, gold leaf, UV light, fluorescent paint, bitumen,paper, found objects.
This work referenced the indigenous people of south eastern South Australia and western Victoria. Boandik Lodge also the name of a retirement home in Mount Gambier. The Boandik people died in large numbers due to exotic diseases and this work is a reminder of the effects of the settler past within the history of contemporary Australia.