Mildura Palimpsest # 4: "Locus in quo" (Observation seat and Memory mound plan

Mildura Palimpsest # 4: "Locus in quo" (Observation seat and Memory mound plan 2001

Pencil and charcoal on paper

Plan for Observation seat and Memory mound, situated in Deakin Avenue Mildura.

“Locus in quo” L–the place in which (something takes place), the locality of an event, etc.; in law it is used to designate the land on which a trespass has been committed.

In the wide median strip of Deakin Avenue, the main street of Mildura, a pile of limestone and soil had stood for decades, unattended by council and used as an ashtray by passers by.

As a solution to the space, for Mildura Palimpsest #1V, I proposed a Memory mound and Observation seat. With the assistance of the Mildura Rural City Council I constructed a resting place over what could have been, prior to European settlement, a meeting place for the local aborigines.

Tabula Rasa, a blank marble book used in cemeteries, remains a device which I have used in several other installations. (also see Hearing Place, where this book appears)