Future Remains: The 2024 Macfarlane Commissions Exhibition Kit

Key ideas/concepts: Sexuality, queer identity, decor, memory, heirlooms, inheritances, found materials.

Nicholas Smith investigates sexuality, queer identity and memory in his artworks. Ceramics form the basis of his practice and are often displayed with painting and sculptural elements fashioned from found materials. His materially rich assemblages (terracotta, vinyl, foam, cardboard etc) weave references to personal aesthetic and material inheritances. 

In a gentle hesitation between 2024, twisted, bulbous ceramic vessels are displayed like bodies or organs precisely positioned across a staged set. These hand-built forms are made using a coil-pot technique, the clay burnished with water, oil and then beeswax to draw out the lustre of the terracotta. The sculptures are tactile, with the residue of the artist’s fingerprints embedded across their surfaces. With an interest in histories of décor and the domestic, Smith has constructed a tableau with the ceramics arranged in dialogue with sculptural objects and plinths made from ‘poor’ materials, including vinyl, cardboard, salvaged timber and foam. The assembled forms encompass both the utilitarian and the highly decorative, the ornamental and the functional. Imbued with personal and cultural connotations, they question notions of status and hierarchy within artistic production and culture more broadly. A large piece of vinyl automotive upholstery simultaneously references aspirational middle-class desires and queer sexuality through its resemblance to leather. Tightly wound ribbons, which Smith inherited from his grandmother and were once used for floral arrangements at his family’s church, recall the restrictions of his religious upbringing, while flourishes of bows speak to the liberation afforded by the craft passed down by his mother and grandmother.

Discussion questions

• Describe the textures you can see in this work. How do each of these relate to the others? How do they allow the artist to convey aesthetic qualities and ideas?
• Why do you think the artist has chosen to use a combination of traditional (e.g. ceramics) and less conventional (e.g. cardboard, foam, etc.) materials in this installation? What is the effect of these varied materials?
• Each individual artwork is part of a larger body of work. How has the artist created a sense of unity within the whole installation?

Key ideas/concepts: constellations, personal journeys, familial histories, culture, Country, connection between land and body

Kim Ah Sam has a multidisciplinary practice that spans weaving, printmaking and sculpture. Her work is underpinned by a deep desire to strengthen her ties to the people and land of her grandmother’s Kuku Yalanji Country, and her father’s Kalkadoon Country, from which she was estranged in her early life. Through artmaking, she advocates for the power of storytelling and knowledge-sharing to foster and strengthen community and connection. Her improvisational weaving technique is entirely self-taught and characterised by an experimental use of found and sourced materials.

Our journey is our story 2024 is a three-part weaving that appears like a constellation or topographic map. It charts the artist’s life story, which has been shaped by her growing awareness and engagement with Kuku Yalanji and Kalkadoon culture. The undulating woven surface resembles topographical features of Country, such as termite mounds, watering holes, rivers and mountain ranges. These are overlaid with references to Ah Sam’s own life, as sections of coiled chaos and gaping holes allude to lost knowledge and relations, while unruly webs of twine suggest alternate routes for connection.  

These geographic and biographic references are embellished further with reference to the physical features of the body. Ah Sam explains:

‘it’s as if the surface of the land has a type of skin, and the land has rivers just like arteries and veins of the body. My sculptural weavings flow in the same way as the rivers interlace country, or the veins run through the body allowing movement.’

Discussion questions:

• What materials can you identify? Why do you think the artist has incorporated recycled and repurposed materials into the artwork? Does this contribute to a particular idea/concept?
• Do you think this artwork is representational? Why? What do you see in the work that helps form this opinion?
• Consider whether there may be any gaps in your knowledge of your identity. Think about what you know about your family, culture, or the place you or your family are from. What might an artwork that acknowledges these gaps look like?

Salote Tawale works across performance, moving image, painting and installation to explore ideas of self-representation. Often humorously challenging cultural stereotypes, she presents nuanced explorations of the complex negotiations around identity as a queer, Fijian woman with settler-colonial heritage living in Australia.  

Constellation 1976- 2024 is both a self-portrait of the artist and a joyful monument to the collective energy of the diasporic community that has sustained her during difficult times. Representing a constellation of influences both historical and cultural, it weaves together seemingly distinct elements from Tawale’s past. The towering sculpture appears like an oversized beaded necklace, composed of culturally specific materials, including tarps, corrugated iron, Adidas tracksuits and patterned textiles all referencing elements of Tawale’s past. The sculpture is set within a soundtrack that playfully charts the artist’s life; composed of songs that she grew up listening to, it moves from reggae to 1990s rock to techno beats, with much else in between. Sounds of crashing waves and ebbing tides repeat throughout the soundtrack and for Tawale, the ocean is an important emblem of diaspora experience. 

Constellation 1976- reflects the individual nuance and shared human experiences of living in the diaspora – people living dispersed from their homeland. It also expands out to speak of a circle of people connected through experience and their support of one another. Building on Tawale’s previous work with wearable adornment, this installation is also designed as a talisman – a symbol of goodwill, spreading positive energy and protection to those who come into contact with it and beyond. 

 Discussion questions:

• What different materials can you see in the artwork? How might these reflect the artist’s personal history and identity?
• What effect does the large scale of this artwork have on how you interpret its meaning? 
• Why do you think the artist has chosen to incorporate a soundscape as part of this artwork? What does the enveloping effect of sound add in terms of mood and/or ideas?