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Sydney artist and COFA Alumni, Mikala Dwyer completed a residency on Cockatoo Island in the lead up to the 2010 Sydney Biennale.

Struck by an absense of sound, agressive seagulls, and the carvings of history, she produced a multimedia installation called An Apparition of Reduction. It fuses sound, smoke and stone in a kind of seance for the island.

Mikala describes the process behind the work, what it's like to carve stone and has a bit of advice for emerging artists - don't do it for the money.

This artist talk was filmed on Cockatoo Island on Saturday 15 May 2010 for the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

More about Mikala Dwyer