A Biography of Daphne Exhibition Kit

Fixed fountain 2021 was commissioned for this exhibition and is the latest in a series of sculptural artworks by Jean-Luc Moulène that first began in 2015. Each work in the series involves  a pair or group of ready-made concrete sculptures that are placed in situations that allow physical interaction between them.  This interaction often takes the form of mutual erosion or abrasion with the statues repeatedly rubbing against one another to create a new fused shape. In the instance of Fixed fountain the two statues were held in contact with one another as either the central upright figure gyrated in a circle, or the diagonally-tilted outer figure spiralled around the perimeter of the central one. The movement of the figures echoes the movement of a potter’s wheel, which also uses circular motion to create a streamlined vessel. The artist was conscious of this connection and deliberately chose statues that represent the ‘waterbearer’, a figure that represents fertility, and is identified by the water vessels that they carry – vessels produced using a potter’s wheel. Mihnea Mircan, the curator of A Biography of Daphne, sees a relationship between this artwork and the theme of his exhibition, whereby a figure changes, or adapts, its form under pressure. In the instance of Daphne, she transformed into a tree in order to continue to exist in an adapted manner that reconciled Apollo’s unwanted pursuit. In the case of Fixed fountain we see two figures, each adapting their physical form to accommodate the impinging pressures of the other.

The bush banana is an Indigenous food that grows on Yhonnie Scarce’s Country. Within this artwork you might analyse the suitcase contents, the bush bananas, as a way for the suitcase’s imagined owner to keep some part of their Country with them when they were taken away, as a precious, fragile connection to home.

Discussion questions:

• What do you see here? 
• How was this sculpture made? And from what materials?
• What do you notice about the two urns and the arrangement of the sculptures?
• How do you think this artwork connects to the larger curatorial themes of the exhibition?

Lauren Burrow’s installation incorporates a group of sculptural forms that explore the story of the celebrated Australian environmental philosopher Val Plumwood. Plumwood famously wrote about her miraculous survival from an attack and death-roll by a salt-water crocodile in Kakadu in 1984.  Two water filled trays spotted with epoxy resin crocodile eyes sit on the gallery floor and reference the moment right before Plumwood’s attack when she was canoeing in Kakadu and noticed a stick resting on the water that wasn’t previously there. The stick quickly emerged from the water with eyes, and Plumwood realised it was a crocodile. It attacked her, death-rolling her onto the bank of the river, ‘the roll was a centrifuge of boiling blackness that lasted for an eternity, beyond endurance; but when I seemed all but finished, the rolling suddenly stopped’. 

Burrow’s artwork captures both the stillness before the attack and the centrifugal force of the violent encounter through the representation of a centrifugally cast aluminum Plumwood tree. The sculpture looks like a standing, spinning tree-like figure, with sucker limbs/trucks touching the ground and reaching out mid air. Burrow’s artwork also highlights how Plumwood’s encounter with the crocodile transformed her worldview, and she went on to radically critique ideas of human supremacy over the nonhuman world (Anthropocentrism).  

Discussion questions:

• What does this work make you think of? 
• What type of artwork has the artist created?
• How would you create an artwork about a crocodile? What medium and materials would you use?

Each of Katie West’s three artworks feature one square meter of calico arranged in a different manner. We can think about this feature of the works as being similar to writing, where one may find several different ways to articulate an idea through language, each alternate form bringing a different emphasis to the central idea. Here, instead of text, the artist is communicating her concept using visual language. The total size of the calico fabric in each work is a significant choice. West is referencing the way that colonial cartographers (map makers) systematically divided countries into precise areas of land. As a First Nations artist, who belongs to the Yindjibarndi people, West is critical of this approach because she sees this process of division as one that converts Country into ‘blank portions of property’. This is in contradiction to First Nations peoples understanding of Country, in which every part of Country is uniquely significant and is invested with culture, stories and spiritual significance. Equally, Country is not thought of by First Nations people as property, because it cannot be sold or purchased. Rather, First Nations people have an innate and inalienable (meaning unable to be removed) connection to Country that is continuous across generations.

Each piece of calico has been dyed by West using natural materials gathered by her from Country – including bark, leaves, fungus and blossoms, each of which impart a unique tone and hue to the fabric. West thinks about these works as ‘contact prints’ that record the contents and constitution of specific areas of Country. While we may not see an immediately recognisable ‘image’ of a landscape, these works perform as abstract ‘pictures’ of Country.

Discussion questions:

• What plants, fruits or vegetables are known for causing stains on the clothes you wear? (grass, pollen, berries?)
• Do you think all fabrics are dyed using natural ingredients? 
• These artworks have been described as works without ‘edges’. What do you think this means?