James Tylor: Economics of Water

James Tylor’s photographic series Economics of Water highlighted the environmental damage to the Murray Darling River system from poor water management, historically and ongoing. This series of photographs of a distraught Murray Darling river system were overlaid with gold geometric shapes that symbolised the human infrastructure of water diversion for commercial agriculture and settlements.

The Murray Darling Basin is Australia’s largest river system, stretching across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. The rivers, lakes and floodplains have been a sustainable cultural river system for Indigenous people living along the waterways for 65,000+ years, providing water, food, resources and trade routes.

Following European colonisation, control of the River’s natural resources have been redirected to non-Indigenous agriculture, fisheries, transport and settlements.

Industrialisation of agriculture through large commercial-scale farming and multi-national owned companies has led to unsustainable water consumption and trade. Tylor’s works addressed what he viewed as State and Federal Government commodification of the rivers’ natural resources, and a failure to manage environmental and cultural consequences.

Economics of Water was produced primarily around the Menindee Lakes in far west New South Wales, where Tylor spent his childhood. The degradation of this region highlighted how the historic European colonisation of the Murray Darling River system through the systematic control of water resources led to the overconsumption of water today. The presentation at Murray Art Museum Albury incorporated photographs produced near the Hume Dam for the first time.

These were recent additions to Economics of Water which acknowledged the broad impacts on the Murray Darling Basin, a complex river system whose relative heath in this region masked the severe damage that has occurred and is continuing to occur across the Rivers’ environment.

This exhibition was presented as part of PHOTO 2020, an international festival of photography based in Melbourne.

About the Artist
James Tylor is a multi-disciplinary visual artist whose practice explores Australian environment, culture and social history. Tylor explores Australian cultural representations through the perspectives of his multicultural heritage that comprises Nunga (Kaurna), Māori (Te Arawa) and European (English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and Norwegian) ancestry. His work focuses largely on the history of 19th century Australia and its continual effect on present day issues surrounding cultural identity and the environment.