Nigel Helyer, CrayVox (2011)
Artist: Nigel Helyer
Work: CrayVox (2011)
Partner: City of Greater Geraldton
Location: Houtman, Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia
CrayVox is the outcome of Sydney-based artist Nigel Helyer's two-month residency in the Abrolhos Islands, a remote configuration of land internationally known as the home of the rock lobster and promoted as the world's first sustainable fishery site.
Growing up in a small Sussex fishing village where the fisherfolk used open wooden boats and tarred wicker lobster pots to make their living, Helyer has long been interested in the future viability and sustainability of our marine economies.
In this installation, the suspended form of a cray boat becomes a vessel to present an audio-portrait of fishing communities in both the Abrolhos Islands and locations in southeast Asia that the artist visited to follow the export trail of rock lobsters to seafood importers and restaurants. CrayVox is presented as both functional and resonant object, projecting the energy and complexity of the Abrolhos, its people and working activities.
