Adze to Coda - an archaeology of device - a series of combination photogram photographs - 1993 - © Lloyd Godman

maori tools

 

digital tools

 

 

 

 

european tools

 

other works

 

"...paradox is explored further in Adze to Coda: an archaeology of device ( 1993 2004). Photographic images from the " estate of Wilderness" - native bush at Piha, on the Auckland west coast, rock formations at port Pegasus on Stewart Island in the far south - are accompanied by shaped photograms. The shapes are of simple tools - Maori fishhooks, adze heads, patu, Pakeha hammers, saws, spanners, while contained within them are photograms of layers of old gears, broken blades, corroded screws - tools of the past, returning to nature through rust and rot, ' an archaeology of implements that reference their own history'. The series ends with 1's and 0's instead of tools , for with the 'soft tools' of the computer age we are left with binary codes rather than physical remains, and the tactility of the object is denied".

 

Lawrence Jones - At Link Vol 25 _ No 4