Swinging branches & rocks build up a visible residue
For Tracing inscriptions 2020/22, a purpose-developed plotter printer is programmed by Robert Andrew to trace an undisclosed Yawuru text in Latin script, activating strings stretching above viewers’ heads that link
to the branches and rocks opposite. Devoid of ink, the traced letters and phrases are left invisible and undisclosed to the viewer. The artist seeks to upend the perceived hierarchy in between published and oral languages – in this scenario, English and Australian Indigenous languages.
In excess of the training course of the exhibition, swinging burnt branches and ochre-included rocks — suspended by strings managed by the plotter — bit by bit develop up seen residue on the wall. The charcoal and ochre correctly write Place on to the walls, reminding viewers that they stand on Indigenous land. This undermines the trope that a gallery’s white walls develop a house the place artworks can be viewed with no external reference points.
The 100 strings divide the central wall into a single-metre squares resembling an environmental survey strategy. The branches and rocks probe and subvert the grid’s boundaries by rubbing, leaping and crumbling about the demarcations – a reminder that mother nature simply cannot usually be contained by human aspirations.
Robert Andrew ‘Tracing inscriptions’
‘Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Modern Art’ is in Queensland Artwork Gallery’s Gallery 4, Gallery 5 (Henry and Amanda Bartlett Gallery) and the Watermall from 13 August 2022 to 22 January 2023.
Acknowledgment of State
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Contemporary Artwork acknowledges the Standard Homeowners of the land on which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We spend respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders previous and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the enormous innovative contribution Initial Australians make to the artwork and culture of this nation.
It is customary in lots of Indigenous communities not to mention the title or reproduce photos of the deceased. All this kind of mentions and photographs on the QAGOMA Site are with authorization, however, care and discretion must be exercised.
Reconciliation Motion Plan
QAGOMA has launched its inaugural Reconciliation Motion Prepare (RAP) to tutorial its contributions to reconciliation. Perspective the 2022–24 RAP.
#QAGOMA