Nick Dorey: The drowning of Hermaphroditus

Nick Dorey presented The drowning of Hermaphroditus, a large scale commission made in response to MAMA's ANZ Zauner Foyer.

The installation incorporated locally sourced and scavenged materials; reusing building supplies, home brew kits, car tyres and medical equipment to create a dynamic and challenged artwork.

The work is part of an ongoing series in which Dorey mines traditional knowledge systems such as Greek mythology, mysticism, and alchemy to inform the construction of a complex three dimensional work.

In Dorey's gradual process of design, placement and assembly the gallery became a laboratory for experimentation - and drew on tradition, intuition and the local environment as he transformed the space.

The mythical figure of Ancient Greece, Hermaphroditus, was used by Alchemists as a symbol of "the great work" - a fusion of female and male forces within a system - a bringing together of opposite powers. Dorey brought these opposing forces together in The drowning of Hermaphroditus.

Sun / moon, warm / cool, above / below, masculine / feminine, movement / stillness, vitalistic / mechanistic - seeking a system that both challenged and balanced the natural order of the universe, and our place in it.