City of Lost Children

Friday. It's knock off time in the winter city. Cricket and I head off to the north, the area known as Nth Shore. I used to work here - 20 years ago, at a venue everyone in this place seems to: The Ford Motor Co. I was thrust into a night world, an afternoon world, a male world. they sponsor the Footy team, you know. Cricket and I both started getting excited by the light whilst constantly being buffeted by a north westerly wind, one that makes your tripod move around. It caused my video to have some random panning. We stop in amongst all the shoreline activity. There's not much room for you here if your not exporting woodchips, phosphates or fossil fuels. Somehow we feel anonymous as we get around in that Jeep. But conspicuous as well.. What is that guy doing filming into an empty flourescent building as the dark clouds roll behind that amazing pivot phosphate stack - he's obsessed with placement of the stack. The smoke is going out towards the bay. They only do this on days where the wind takes it away, a local historian only told me last week, as I sat interviewing him for the Murmur project I am involved with. Cricket has an amazing lens, which gives the perfect wide angle without distorting it. The light fades more and we must hurry around to the refinery. The activity seems more sinister, the sounds and wind more worrying. But, as artists in this industrial town, the time becomes exciting. We experiment with video settings and take footage up the road and into the heart of the wild looking Sci-Fi edifice of the Shell. A car pulls in next to us down the short road placed like an infrastructure afterthought in front of the oily megaworks. It's a great place to pull off . You can see the broken pipe taking used water out into Corio Bay. I loved the night city and pipes of Shell as a kid, as I spent week in Corio with one of my relatives. We run out of time - but we will be back. I receive a text from Cricket over the weekend as she reviews her visual bounty: Oah shit. I have the city of lost children in my screen. No hope for a happy ending in these images... god this is fun.

Indeed it is. Thankyou Ross, thankyou cricket for the opportunity of a lifetime