Supply Chain;
The Barka/Darling river and Menindee lakes have suffered due to a process of imbalance; greed defying the laws of the land. This manifested in what came to be termed ‘the fish kills’, hundreds of fish dying simultaneously; some over a hundred years old. Out of this moment of Nature speaking unequivocally, comes Wreath of the Darling Martyrs; a Crown of Eternal Life. With dead fish brought to the artist by a Barkindji-maali for the purpose of somehow giving life to the moment, the artist scaled and preserved the leather. The circular wreath, normally horizontal, is made vertical to mark the majesty and life-force while simultaneously acknowledging the sacrifice of the ‘Darling Martyrs’.
Another recent intervention, albeit with the stated beneficial aim of bringing water to the town of Broken Hill, was the building of the pipeline from Mildura. During the construction of this countless animals died, mostly due to the irony of not being able to circumnavigate the massive water pipes and trenches, to reach shelter/water. The vision of destruction was palpable, not to mention the line being imposed upon the language of a river.
In A Prayer for Water, prayer beads are meditatively formed out of Kangaroo carcass fur. The artist finds life in death through forming it into something pointing to the transcendent and the eternal. The prayer beads are modelled on the Islamic tasbih/misbaha acknowledging, among other important things, the role of the afghans and camels as transporters of water in the region who, I might add, through their own sacred law, had been commanded to not withhold water, as doing so would be a crime. Interestingly the Arabic word for prayer bead is from the root meaning to swim. This is the state of Remembrance, of the one remembering the source of water.
Exhibited in Designwork #3 The Supply Chain at Sophie Ganon Gallery - Melbourne Design Week