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Rusted mild steel
190 x 35 x 1500cm
2008 Montalto Sculpture Prize Winner
Acquired 2008
Encryption is a striking line of corten-steel forms that appear to rise and fall across the landscape in a sequence of abstract gestures. From certain angles they read like a sentence, from others a pattern, and from others still, a series of disappearing markers. This ambiguity is deliberate.
The work references the invisible transmissions that underpin contemporary life, particularly the digitised messages moving constantly between devices, satellites, receivers and listeners. Tatton’s sculptural “zeros and ones” become physical placeholders for the digital language that surrounds us, yet remains unseen.
As Tatton writes:
“‘Encryption’ is my tangible eye magnet to hold you while considering the way our devices are transmitting messages all over the place.
Up to a satellite above our globe, then back to another surface receiver, within an instant. The sending device encrypts voice impulses into digits, zeros and ones that fly through matter without friction, to be unscrambled by the receiver.
Where do the zeros and ones go if they are not received? What will future civilisations find?”
Set against Montalto’s rolling vineyard slopes, the work becomes a contemplation of what is known, what is sensed, and what is entirely beyond perception. It asks us to consider the information we generate simply by existing, and whether that material will outlast us in forms we cannot yet imagine.
Tatton’s installation invites slow looking. Moving around the work shifts the rhythm and spacing of its elements, evoking the way meaning in a coded message changes depending on how it is read, decoded or interpreted.
“We are laying information all around us in a form unknown even to our own physical senses, yet there are stories being told everywhere. We have to recognise that there is far more going on around us than we can ever know.”-Marcus Tatton.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Marcus Tatton
Marcus Tatton is an Australian sculptor known for large scale works that examine environmental systems, communication structures and human impact on the natural world. His practice often bridges digital concepts and organic materials, translating coded or systemic ideas into physical, tactile form.
Tatton works across timber, steel, and landscape materials, frequently using repetition and modular construction to reference data, networks and communication. His sculptures often explore humanity's relationship to the environment, expressing the tension between natural ecosystems and human-made structures. He is widely recognised for public artworks and temporary large-scale installations that invite visitors to consider their own position within broader environmental and cultural systems.
SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Long-term participation in major Australian sculpture exhibitions and outdoor sculpture programs.
Significant public commissions across Tasmania and mainland Australia.
Known for ambitious temporary works at large festivals and events.
Widely collected by public institutions, councils and private collectors.
TATTON AT MONTALTO
Tatton’s Encryption joined the Montalto collection in 2008. The sculpture embodies his interest in coded language, communication, and the intersection of the digital with the organic. Positioned on a gentle slope, the sequence of rising and falling steel forms behaves almost like a waveform or an interrupted message, grounding Tatton’s conceptual concerns within the Mornington Peninsula landscape.
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