Sourced from a salvaged 35mm film cell, this image depicts the self-proclaimed “Big Banana” at a water park in Coffs Harbour. Scanned and enlarged, the image of this roadside icon becomes less novelty, more vessel. Unlike the paired logic of the Ark, this banana stands alone. It reads as surrogate boat, an improbable vessel of salvation embedded within leisure culture. Affixed to the frame, black 16mm film leader spills downward, suggesting falling water. Blank yet anticipatory, the film leader signals both cinematic promise and narrative delay; the pause before projection, before impact. Film here functions as both evidence and prophecy: a medium through which stories of disaster and redemption circulate.

Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim)
Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim at project8 gallery Melbourne

February - April 2026