Elliot Bastianon

About the work

Borrowed is a work that pushes the industrial process of electroplating to produce extreme outcomes. Electroplating is a common way of providing a thin, durable surface finish on metallic objects. In this work Bastianon uses this method to borrow a large volume material from one area of the sculpture and deposit it somewhere else.

 

The work plays with metal in strange and bemusing ways. Using electricity and chemistry to break down the copper pipe and grow it at a different site, Bastianon takes on the role of both artist and industrial alchemist. The shape-shifting material transformation raises broader questions around the kinds of violent processes associated with mineral extraction that turns raw materials into standard industrial units.

Photos by Heeseon Jung

About the artist

Bastianon is currently undertaking a PhD candidature at the Australian National University. His research is focused on how the presence of mineral growth and alchemical processes can provide readings on creative authorship when you introduce systems of chance to participate in making the work. His research is also underpinned by a desire to understand extractive processes and subvert standard industrial processes to highlight the entanglement of resources, geology and chemistry.