Who am I? 2014 from the You Started It … I Finish It series 2014

Humour can be a powerful strategy to draw attention to important issues. Paola Pivi challenges our perception of polar bears as arctic predators by giving them a unique personality expressed through their vibrant colours, body language and playful poses. As with much of her work, the sculpture also expresses her concern about the vulnerability of the natural world.

In Anchorage, Alaska, where Pivi has lived for many years, bears are a part of everyday life and she considers them her neighbours. For this work, the artist collaborated with a Canadian taxidermist to ensure the bodies of the bears are as true to life as possible.

This year, cancellation… 2020

This work takes its title from a newspaper headline the artist read at the start of 2020 stating, ‘This year, be prepared’. It is one in a series of collages drawing on the artist’s historical archives, juxtaposed with contemporary newspaper articles and mid-century comic books, which are then encapsulated in neon. Through this work, Brook Andrew comments on contemporary concerns including climate change, the pandemic, the Black/Blak/Trans Matter movements, as well as religious and political upheavals around the world.

How does this work highlight new anxieties around old issues? What does this suggest about our future?

Standing place from the Other Places series 2018

Standing place is inspired by designer Elliat Rich’s life in Alice Springs. The assemblage of material, form and colour reference Rich’s accumulated observations of patterns and desert atmospheres encountered during long drives, camping trips and hikes in Central Australia. Seeking out ways that design objects can connect people to the landscapes from which the pieces emerged, Rich states:

‘…it is what I’ve seen, and what I’ve imagined, furniture that evokes and/or embodies the landscapes of Australia … The land has a presence; prehistoric, weathered, strong, alive. From the grandeur of the geology to the hand-held details the drawers took form’.

Are there particular colours or patterns that feel like home when you see them?

Untitled fabric length 1992

This batik illustrates a series of spirit figures, macropods, fruit bats, fish and other creatures inspired by the rock art of Far North Queensland. The artist has used red ochre, white and lemon yellow on a dark brown background, which reflects the colours associated with the ancient rock art of the region. This work celebrates the spiritual and familial connection between First Nations people and the environment.

Fiona Blackfish 2015 designed, 2016 manufactured from the Monstera Deliciosa, Vol. 1 series 2015

Designer Porky Hefer delights in creating humorous and playful situations in order to tackle serious subjects, such as animal extinction. Fiona Blackfish is a suspended killer whale nest seat, which encourages audiences to consider the majesty and fragility of killer whale populations around the world. Historically, hunting was the primary threat to killer whales. More recently, a combination of food shortages, chemical pollutants and habitat disturbance from the noise created by marine vessels and machinery, are hindering their ability to thrive. Hefer’s practice asks audiences to consider the different ways human activity affects the environment and its many life forms.

How can human actions based on respect and empathy shape positive contributions to the environment where you live?

Santa Cruz River 2017

Alexandra Kehayoglou takes a contemporary approach to the historical practice of rug making to create large‑scale textile installations that document and draw attention to landscapes under threat from development. Santa Cruz River depicts a section of Argentina’s last free-flowing glacial river, which has much Indigenous cultural significance and is home to many unique and endangered plant and animal species. The work responds to the Argentine government’s controversial decision to approve the construction of two Chinese state‑funded mega‑hydroelectric dams along the River, which will negatively influence its ecosystems. Kehayoglou’s practice harnesses the materials and techniques of craft and design to draw attention to the unseen environmental effects of globalisation and economic development.

Jangarra armchair 2017

Artists and designers from the Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency in Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia, together with Thirroul-based designer Trent Jansen, designed and constructed Jangarra armchair. The work is an embodiment of a cautionary tale told to children in the desert region around Fitzroy Crossing. Jangarra, or the ‘man-killer’, is a big hairy man who hides behind large ant hills waiting to catch unsuspecting children. The human hair string that lends Jangarra its eerie presence was woven by Yangkarni Penny K-Iyons and Myarn Lawford, the last two remaining women in the Community able to practice and teach this unique skill. Jangarra armchair offers an example of how creative collaboration across cultures and communities can foster new relationships, reinvigorate old production techniques and enrich our sense of shared place and history.

150 year, Rorschach 2019

This painting depicts a landscape familiar to the artist from bushwalks in the NSW Southern Highlands. Ben Quilty had received permission from the Gundangara people, the traditional owners of the land on which the artist lives, to make work about one of their waterholes. During one visit, Quilty and his son came across a National Parks and Wildlife sign that described the location as ‘a favourite gathering place for locals for more than 150 years. With beautiful ferns and moss-covered rocks, it provides a quiet haven for swimming or just relaxing in the cool, quiet surrounds’. However, the waterholes have been important locations for the Gundangara people for millennia and Quilty created this painting in response to the ongoing institutional denial of Aboriginal history.

This painting is named after the Rorschach test; a psychological test in which a person’s interpretation of an inkblot picture is thought to reveal insights into their personality and emotions. What do you see?

Rocks happy to help: hold down 2017

‘I’m really interested in this idea of helping because of the idea that helping is an act of agency that is enabling of other things.’
– Simone Slee

In this video work we see the artist performing within a natural landscape over an extended period of time. As she balances between the unsteady plywood band and the rock, she herself becomes part of a sculptural assemblage in a way that shows how reliant her body is on the rocks around her in order to maintain balance. The work deals with ideas of gravity, but also, as the title suggests, the question of how an inanimate object such as a rock can offer support in the creation of a sculptural form, and how we all fundamentally rely on the forces and attributes of nature to enable our very existence.

Having agency means having the power to think for yourself, make decisions and take action. Have you ever considered if the nature surrounding you might have agency too? How might the landscape or places around you help to give you more agency?

How are you given agency by the help you receive from others?

Gapu ga Gitkit (Water and birds) 2005

Artists across Arnhem Land make Larrakitj and Lorrkon, or hollow pole coffins, from stringybark trees, hollowed out by termites. Originally mourning objects, Larrakitj and Lorrkon have now become a major contemporary art form that reveals miny’tji (designs) and rarrk (cross-hatching) specific to individual artists. Through the continuation of customary cultural practices and processes of making, both female and male artists in East and West Arnhem Land assert their sovereignty through their lived relationship with the land, and each other, and remain connected to their ancestors. These Larrakitj from from Yirrkala draw on specific clan designs to share the story of the wet season.

The Yowie 2017

This video work references Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series. Cross has filmed his own version of the Kelly character in an Australian Army ‘ghillie suit’, colloquially called a ‘Yowie’. The bark helmet is made from the wood of an Australian eucalypt and has been painted with a white ochre stripe standing in for the rectangular void where the eyes would be. The figure is motionless, with the only reference to the passage of time being the gentle ripples in the water and the rustling of the reeds. At one point a singular fish jumps in the background. If you are not patient, you will miss it.

What are the stories and narratives that define our cultural and national identity? What do they signify and how might introducing different views change the way we understand them?

LANDFILL 2020

A mixed media artist primarily known for his non-figurative gestural paintings (using paint in free‑sweeping marks, or gestures), Clinton Naina utilises domestic materials as his medium, such as heritage‑coloured house paint, bitumen paint and domestic household bleach (White King). In this work, Naina addresses the escalating problem of landfill, as he states: ‘Remnants and evidence from the used‑only‑once popular commercial culture and disregarded throw‑away world. Bits and pieces on capitalism, imperialism and colonialism, all gathered together creating a consumers’ burial site, hidden deeply into our sacred earth. Colourful, shiny synthetic plastic objects, manufactured from toxic poisonous chemicals and gases forever there bleaching, polluting and looting our natural ecosystems. For the sake of the first world economy and someone’s so called wealth and greed. Safe, light blue surgical masks, worn to prevent the spread of airborne illness, death and disease. A white plastic shopping bag lies empty, full of nothingness, at a price that no one can really afford. Used only once more, that’s all. As Landfill’.

Gyro, table 2016

The vast amount of plastic making its way into oceans and waterways (an estimated eight million tonnes globally per year) poses a significant threat to marine life and represents billions of dollars of ‘lost’ material value globally. Gyro, table displays a stunning surface of ‘ocean terrazzo’ made from hundreds of thousands of plastic pieces harvested from oceans and coastlines around the world. The pieces are organised by colour gradient and inlaid in a pattern that creates a kaleidoscopic diagram of the earth’s longitudinal and latitudinal lines. Through this contemporary reinterpretation of the eighteenth-century specimen table, Brodie Neill reframes plastic waste as a highly prized material, in the hopes of changing our behaviour and attitudes towards the use and disposal of plastics in our daily lives.

Did you know that microplastics have been discovered in some seafood that people eat? How much plastic do you use in a day? Do you know where it ends up when you throw it away?

Mama no more diapers please (III) 2014 from the You Started It … I Finish It series 2014

Humour can be a powerful strategy to draw attention to important issues. In this work Paola Pivi challenges our perception of polar bears as arctic predators by giving them a unique personality expressed through their vibrant colours, body language and playful poses. As with much of her work, the sculpture also expresses her concern about the vulnerability of the natural world. In Anchorage, Alaska, where Pivi has lived for many years, bears are a part of everyday life and she considers them her neighbours. For this work from her series of supernatural polar bears, You Started It … I Finish It she collaborated with a Canadian taxidermist to ensure the bodies of the bears are as true to life as possible.