Slow Melt is a collaborative installation by Heather Hesterman and Sarah Tomasetti. It involved making suspended ice-rocks created from moulds that we took from basalt rocks sourced from our local freshwater way, the Merri Creek. The foundations of this project arose out of the Deep Time Art Project in 2014, where Sarah and I worked together presenting a number of workshops for the year 5/6 students at a local primary school. The idea for this new artwork was to create a work that slowly dripped and changed in front of your eyes. For the viewer to experience the effects of temperature change, and to present what essential is hidden as these changes happen so slowly but on a vast scale.
Stuart Purves from Australian Galleries was supportive of this project right from the go and then it was up to us to work out the logistics to make this happen. Excitingly we found a metal spinner in Lilydale who was use to artistic requests and gave us a tour of the factory – I always love seeing what factories can fabricate and create! Geoff from Whitehorse Industries assisted us and made the 1340mm diameter reservoir for Slow Melt. below are a few photos from that day.
The next step was to install it into Australian Galleries Stockroom and to set up all the wires that would be suspending the ice-rocks for the 22 days.
Heather Hesterman 