In Cu 2016 Shirley Macnamara has wound discarded copper wire around a screw driver to create multiple coils, forming an object that comments on the abandoned copper mining sites on the artist's family land at Mt Guide Station in north-west Queensland. 'Cu' references the deep holes that scar the land long after unsuccessful mining exploration. While the disused pits have influenced shapes and forms in Macnamara's work, and she has sometimes included a particular soft yellow ochre found there to enhance her signature spinifex pieces, the destruction of her immediate environment remains upsetting to all her family. In fact, Macnamara's 12-year-old grandson, Nathaniel, worked with her to make the raw copper and copper wire shapes representing an above-country view of the 'snappy gums' that grow on top of the surrounding hills, levelled through mining. As Macnamara asserts in her statement for the Castlemaine State Festival: 'Cu is a reminder that these trees take decades to grow in the hot, dry climate of western Queensland and any destruction by mining long ago is felt for generations'.

Accompanying photographs of the mine sites and country taken by Macnamara to contextualise the work were made available by the artist to the Gallery for research purposes and are held in the QAGOMA Library.

This work was commissioned by the artist's gallerist, Beverly Knight, in her role as Guest Curator for the Castlemaine State Festival 2017, for inclusion in the exhibition 'The Extractive Frontier: Mining for Art', which explored the effects of mineral exploration and exploitation: scarring; layering; excavating; prospecting; exchange; power; destruction and renewal. 

Cu tells an important Queensland story common to many who live on the land with the consequences of mining exploration.