forest (2024)
Collaboration between Annelies Jahn and Jane Burton Taylor
graphite and charcoal rubbings on ink dyed silk; 135cm X 450cm each, eight in all
Forest explores colonialism’s impact on Australian bio-diversity. In the work, the artists have undertaken giant graphite and charcoal rubbings from an Angophera Forest in North Sydney, on the traditional lands of the Cammeraygal people. This work involves an intimate engagement with, and a celebration of, the indigenous natural world, still surviving in pockets of remnant bushland, despite the massive and ongoing impact of white settlement. The oversized drawings are set into ink-dyed lengths of silk. The trees are life size, so resonate a personal relationship to viewers, but simultaneously, dwarf their human counterparts, reversing the usual hierarchy.