Dirt for Nauru. Christopher Robbins. Proposal

i am counting on the unintended consequences

The Island of Nauru sits just about in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

"Nauru was just a coral reef underwater. As the sea-level sank and the coral grew, the pinnacles of coral broke the surface to form an island. Eventually these pinnacles filled with ocean-deposits, bird guano, and a thin layer of topsoil to create the Nauru we know today.

Or rather, the Nauru we knew until machines the size of houses dug out 70% of the land-mass to make fertilizer. It turns out those deposits were incredibly rich in Phosphate, so for a decade or so Nauru had a GDP up there with Sweden and the U.S. Hence the rusted air conditioners and gutted cars in a country that now has little petrol or electricity. The Phosphate ran out, the money squandered on failed investments (including, amazingly, a west-end musical about Leonardo DaVinci that lasted less than a month), air-conditioners, cars and, from what I could see, DVD and Sega. They now make money housing Arab refugees waiting to get into Australia and New Zealand. I swam with a group of them one evening as they bobbed in the blue-green ocean in matching life-vests, watched over by one of the Australian security guards filling the hotel in town that owns the island's only taxi.

It feels like Mad Max in Paradise, after the war. The fruit store's only produce was eggplant and onions, imported. The bank has no money; I had to bring in everything I might spend. And I love this little, devastated island. I wish we could all send aircraft carriers full of dirt to fill in the gaping maw that was once an island." (Robbins, 2004)

And so, I propose just this process as an Art project. While my time in Nauru and in the region has convinced me that the endeavor is irresponsible as a development project, it is absolutely doable as an Art work. As the title states, in this piece I will bring dirt to Nauru, in a barge full of dirt dragged by a tugboat across the Pacific ocean.

Most of the island's surface has been stripped to jagged pinnacles up to 10 metres tall.