The Clay­pans were con­sid­ered a nat­ur­al equiv­a­lent to the con­struct­ed aquat­ic cen­tre. Peo­ple use the two places in sim­i­lar ways and spend­ing time at the clay­pans when they are full of water is a cel­e­bra­tion of rain in Cen­tral Aus­tralia. Being a large work the inten­tion was to enrich the space while not over­whelm­ing it. The work can be inter­act­ed with both spa­tial­ly (from a dis­tance) as wall­pa­per you might find in a home and close-up, dis­cov­er­ing the insects, birds and plants of the Claypans.

As well as design­ing the con­tent of the wall­pa­per, the work need­ed to fit into and com­pli­ment the mod­ern build­ing. Being a large work, the artist’s inten­tion was to enrich the space while not over­whelm­ing it. Through­out the design process, the artist aimed to cap­ture a sense of rhythm and ​‘breath’ that can be expe­ri­enced when doing laps. This allowed for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­act with the work both on a macro/​spatial lev­el and close-up to the work.

Insects: Drag­on Fly, Water Scor­pi­on, Back­swim­mer, Midge lar­vae, Great Div­ing Bee­tle, Clam Shrimp, Drag­on­fly lar­vae, Cad­dis fly lar­vae, Fairy shrimp, Water boat­man, Shield shrimp, Midge fly, Tad­pole (Neobac­tra­chus), Frog (Neobac­tra­chus).

Plants: Nar­doo, Arrow Grass, Cype­r­us Iria, Lipocarpha micro cephala.

This art­work was com­mis­sioned by Alice Springs Town Council.