This World (automated apple picker) 2025, single channel video 3:20mins, sound, mirrors, wood, corrugated iron, silver foil

This World (automated apple picker) was created for When the Fog Clears, a group exhibition at the Franklin Watershed, presented by Constance ARI as part of the Ten Days on the Island festival. Drawing inspiration from the prevalence of fog in the Huon region and the history of the Franklin Watershed as an industrial apple processing and drying plant, the exhibition examines the dual nature of “fog” as both a natural and industrial phenomenon.

Fog frequently appears across Greek, Norse, Native American and Celtic mythology as a portal to other realms or a veil between worlds. I began to think of the Watershed site as a kind of portal to another world – to the early days of mass production and mechanisation. This World (automated apple picker) considers the gritty, physical past of the Franklin Watershed site, and contrasts it with visions of the present and future of factories and farming. Installed inside a massive kiln once used to dry apples, a large kaleidoscope displays hypnotic footage of automated apple pickers working day and night.