“Built Geologies is a successful synthesis and continuation of his interventions in basalt, a sedimentary rock local to the Victorian Volcanic Plains of Naarm/Melbourne, where he is based. By activating this material back into its prehistoric, fluid glass-rock state, Burridge positions himself as the resource-extracting brute force that is the “hand” of the Anthropocene. Yet, where the prescriptive narrative of an Earth at the verge of ecological collapse should follow, Built Geologies widens our viewfinder far beyond our epoch, invoking moments of tension that feel strangely soothing.

As aptly described by the opening speaker, Canberra-based artist and lecturer Dr Jacqueline Bradley, Burridge is concerned with our conceptual grasp of deep time: a scale of geological events so vast that it is arguably incomprehensible to the human brain. To circumvent this, the exhibiting works present imaginary temporalities, or ‘opportunities to time-travel’, to borrow Bradley’s words”