In his installation Alpha Mail Series, Gerald has created a series of postcard letters to Campbell Newman from one who simply signs each card with Love and $$, Clive.

Alpha Mail Series, 2013 at Document://Bimblebox opening night. photo Jill Sampson

Lovingly tied with scarlet bow a bundle of letters lay private and still – secret declarations whispering just out of earshot.

Other letters lie carelessly scattered on a low table, inviting us to read them.  “Dear Campbell, Thanks for drinks last night.  Glad you like my ideas for mining Qld…”

An alpha male sending endearing thoughts, entreaties and sometimes threats to the current leading alpha male of Qld.  A close knit group of men with big toys and big plans, who covet the grazing properties of the Galilee Basin, and one very beautiful nature refuge,  near the town of Alpha in central west, Qld.

Meat ants scurry about, cleaning and gleaning food for their underground nests.  Nests which forge tunnels invisible to us while the overburden of their endeavours piles upon the surface of the land.  Meat ants make roads and highways outward from the nest, creating tracks much larger and wider than themselves.

These meat ants are oblivious to the word play, bedroom banter and the politics which will affect them in the long term.  They think only of finding the next morsel to take back to the communal nest.  The ants cut, saw and dismember the hearts, carrying them away in small sections.

Rendering the declarations of love to hollow flattery and the threats sinister and ever widening.

Alpha Mail Series explores the power of relationships in a culture where inapproriate mining and development flourishes to the detriment of the survival of all species, including humans.

All photos by Jill Sampson