Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, patinated bronze objects on table, 2013, 3.75 m by 1.5 m by .75 m.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, 2013, installation view. Fremantle Arts Centre.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, 2013, installation view. Fremantle Arts Centre.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, 2013, hand-made incense on plaster plinth, dimensions variable.


Michael Bullock, The Trail of Time, 2013, hand-made incense on plaster plinth, dimensions variable.

Developed through the Fremantle Arts Centre Artist in Residence Program and supported by the Moora Fine Arts Society through a short-term artistic residence, The Trail of Time weaves personal experience of landscape, place and family with research into the history, trade and uses of sandalwood in Western Australia. This tree, Santalum Spicatum, which is indigenous to Western Australia, throughout the farming area of the wheat belt and beyond, was hugely successful as an export for the manufacture of joss sticks (incense) in Buddhist and Hindu ceremony- the wood’s value being in its ephemerality, needing to be burnt to release its perfume.

The Trail of Time is a collection of sandalwood branches and discarded and decayed farm objects/relics, re-made in to bronze through different processes of bronze casting, direct burnout and lost wax. They echo this process of dematerialisation while giving permanent form to the energetic transformation of burning wood.

The artworks title comes from the book, The Trail of Time by Silvio Bedini. This book details the use and values of incense in ceremony, daily life and the ways of using incense for the measure of time in Asian culture.