BOTANY BAY

Micky Allan and Steenus von Steensen

15 April 2011 - 21 May 2011

CCAS Gorman Mainspace

When Micky Allan returned to Botany Bay in 2010, 30 years after her series Botany Bay Today (1980), it was with her partner and collaborator Steenus von Steensen. In terms of sensibility, her single viewing platform had changed as much, if not more, than the Bay itself.

Allan and von Steensen had gone to Botany with the intention responding to changes over 30 years, but not in a traditional documentary manner. In fact they note that " ... in some ways everything appears 'exactly the same only more so', both in relation to the level of industrialisation and people living their lives regardless Ð everything seems intensified." (1) In a timeless study that concentrates on the forces of transformation with warmth and colourful enthusiasm, Allan and von Steensen take a panoramic view that is identified with both the human and natural forces that have shaped the changing environment. (David Broker, 2011)

Image: Micky Allen and Steenus von Steensen, Installation view of Botany Bay, 2010-2011