Smoke & Mirrors
- Medium: Oil on Linen
- Size: 1.52m x 1.22m
- Price: SOLD
- Description: Smoke and mirrors, is an old adage used to describe deceptive and sometimes fraudulent attempts to disguise a situation or series of events, which to me sums up a lot of mining developments in West Australia at the moment. I believe in sustainable mining that has social contracts attached, to provide infrastructure and build new communities but most importantly to seek alternative greener energy sources. What we have at the moment is our mineral wealth in the hands of just a few companies who just want to dig it up ship it out and burn it up in any number of dirty industries you can think of. They hold onto this privileged position by relying on public apathy and a lot of spin to hide the true agenda which is maximum return at minimum cost, regardless of the damage to thousands of years of indigenous culture and our environment [I have tried to portray the rock carving simply and broadly as I am not an aboriginal and can only hope I have captured the rage their resting spirits must feel] I have painted many of these suspect mining and industrial developments as furnaces floating above the mirrors which are a metaphor for the select few miners self interest and perched on top of these fossil burning furnaces are cathedral style factories[ mining is the new religion in the wild west] which are unsustainable and obsolete but still seem to litter the landscape by way of some sort of industrial mitosis, funded by investors hovering overhead in the chopper. Future developments are down to the king of spin in the foreground as he gazes across the landscape thinking of James Price Point perhaps or maybe he’s looking further south to Margaret River and the many ways to make coal look green and clean. Laurie Posa