In Noosa Attard chose as a site for his work Balance, the Noosa River, a place where the raw river and quiet suburbia meet. The Noosa River, once the lifeblood of a pioneer timber industry, and now, part of a tourist Mecca (Noosa Heads in Queensland, Australia), quietly disperses throughout a burgeoning suburban community as it nears the sea. Signs of a casual life are everywhere - jettys, footbridges, and of course the small boats anchored quietly awaiting the next outing. And yet despite this seemingly tamed image the river still maintains a roughness, an originality and a pristine quality. How do you deal with the powerful image of nature in such a ‘settled’ context? Balance is in effect another one of those boats quietly inhabiting the river. It is a meditative work and yet one which sparkles like a gem. At once it is an everyday object and yet a magical metaphor. It is a regular boat to make short trips and yet a boat that speaks about thousands and even millions of journeys. Attard’s totally reflective boat covered with mirrored perspex, with a clear base and filled with small tree branches, forces us to think about the ‘big picture’ - nature/civilization; entropy/sustainability, and even art and real life. Just as a boat will literally sink if it is not in balance so will life as we know it, if we cannot find harmony between the human and natural world. Aesthetically Attard’s practice is formalist. Balance is the key. The strength of his vision lies in anchoring his sculptures to a ground. In ‘Balance’ he literally anchors his boat, but more importantly the anchoring is achieved by eliminating the lines or edges of the object and its ground. The boat becomes the water or is composed of the water. At times it simply dissolves.