bed chamber (2024)
Collaboration between Annelies Jahn and Jane Burton Taylor
Bed Chamber explores colonialism’s impact on local bio-diversity. A reimagined domestic space is formed by giant rubbings of Balls Head angophoras. They enclose a bed over-run by European Whisky Grass. The work critiques the insidious nature of introduced species and bears witness to the endurance of indigenous flora.
By creating an immersive room within a room, we hope to give visitors a direct experience of visual elements that tell a story of colonialism and the impact of settlers and subsequent generations on the Australian environment. Traditional custodians cared for country and kept a balance of bio-diversity in doing this. By harvesting invasive Whisky Grass from traditional Gayamagal lands (North Head), we as non-indigenous people are personally taking pressure off the indigenous habitat; in a sense participating in care of country. By reworking this grass into found objects, we hope to encourage thinking about the damage done and still done by invasive non-native plants. It is a symbol that can be extrapolated into other areas of ecological care of the natural world. By forming the room with rubbings taken from on-site angophoras, we are using scale and material to communicate the value and power of the indigenous landscape. We would like to raise questions about what role we play collectively and personally, in looking after the general ecological well-being of this place we call home.
By creating an immersive room within a room, we hope to give visitors a direct experience of visual elements that tell a story of colonialism and the impact of settlers and subsequent generations on the Australian environment. Traditional custodians cared for country and kept a balance of bio-diversity in doing this. By harvesting invasive Whisky Grass from traditional Gayamagal lands (North Head), we as non-indigenous people are personally taking pressure off the indigenous habitat; in a sense participating in care of country. By reworking this grass into found objects, we hope to encourage thinking about the damage done and still done by invasive non-native plants. It is a symbol that can be extrapolated into other areas of ecological care of the natural world. By forming the room with rubbings taken from on-site angophoras, we are using scale and material to communicate the value and power of the indigenous landscape. We would like to raise questions about what role we play collectively and personally, in looking after the general ecological well-being of this place we call home.
Bed chamber at North Sydney Art Prize, Coal Loader, Waverton. 2024
270cm square, 450cm high; graphite and charcoal rubbings on ink dyed silk; found bed with harvested beeswax-dipped Whisky Grass, found chair with same