Martin Keogh
Weld-Art
"My wife's family farm in the Mallee, about 100km from Mildura, towards the South Australian border, and also farm in NSW, about 60 km from Euston. We actually farmed for a few years with them, which is when I first started to weld - not as art, but for practical reasons.
The farm parts that are used in the sculptures are mainly from Prungle Station in NSW. The station boasts several old wells, including one where Burke and Wills camped on their expedition.
The pieces are mainly from old machinery that is no longer used. As new technologies bring more efficient machines the old machinery and steel is literally thrown onto the scrap heap!
Old plough parts, for example, become redundant very quickly and the plough points that make up the heads of these pieces were far broader when they were in use than they appear on the sculptures.
The scrap steel is plentiful but finite, and one day we hope that most of the steel lying in the Mallee scrub on the red dirt will have a new life as a piece of art.
Finding interesting pieces is a family affair, and along with my wife, Kylie and our children Mick and Grace, much of our several visits a year is spent poking through acres of discarded steel!"