Petrol Station Every Day of 2011

In 2011 I photographed my local petrol station every day, from January 1st to December 31st.

The 365 photos were turned into a video slideshow, accompanied by a 365 word text piece explaining the process of making of this piece. The accompanying anecdotal text is as much a part of the work as the photos are.

This artwork was first exhibited in the 2012 exhibition ‘Everything, anything and one other thing', curated by Tom Polo at Alaska Projects in Sydney.
The work was later presented in the 2014 exhibition ‘Art As A Verb’, curated by Charlotte Day, Francis Parker and Patrice Sharkey, first shown at the Monash University Museum of Art, and then in 2015 travelling to Artspace in Sydney.

Petrol Station Every Day of 2011, in 365 words.

In 2011 I photographed my petrol station every day, from January 1st to December 31st. Every photo was taken with a Nikon d90 DSLR using an 18-55ml lens, standing in the same spot.

The petrol station is a 5 minute drive from my house, and an hour away from Melbourne city and the university I attended full time.

If approached I would say I was a commerce student documenting the petrol prices for uni.

I had to stop buying my petrol there.

My friends became mad with me for missing so many parties.

I had to cut short fun dates with my partner and once turned down a free holiday. It was funny for a while but eventually gave the impression I wouldn’t prioritise her over my art, which was a truly difficult problem to overcome.

In July I went to Tasmania. The flight was at 7am so I took the photo at 5am. Taking that photo meant that the night before I couldn’t sleep closer to the airport with the people I was going with. It also meant I could only stay in Tasmania for one night.

For about two months I was sick. Once I didn’t get out of bed until 9pm, the only thing I did that day was take the photo.

In November I thought I had appendicitis, I spent the night in the Emergency Room and all I could think was that if I needed surgery I’d miss my photo.

In June my camera needed repairing so I had to keep re-borrowing one from the uni every day, anxiously hoping no-one else wanted it. This was the time of Japan’s radiation problem due to an earthquake, where the parts come from, so the repairing took weeks. The same thing happened again with my lens.

As the year went on I gained more confidence at pointing a camera while people were there. Some ducked, some waved, some stuck their thumb up, some stuck their finger up.

Taking these photos was a stressful and punishing burden on my life. I once saw a Dilbert calendar that said, “Goals are a form of self inflicted slavery”.

I’m proud I did it.