Yhonnie Scarce and Edition Office’s timber pavilion celebrates Indigenous histories
A sobering monument to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, In Absence is a collaboration between the contemporary artist and Melbourne-based studio for the 2019 NGV Architecture Commission
In the wake of receiving a prestigious Australian National Award earlier this month for Hawthorn House, the Melbourne-based studio Edition Office has erected a soaring cylindrical monolith of radical cultural significance within the Grollo Equiset Garden of the NGV International. It is the realisation of the firm’s winning submission for the NGV Architecture Commission competition (now in its fifth year), created in collaboration with Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce, whose practice explores the ongoing effects of colonisation of the Aboriginal peoples.
Rising 9m high and straddling 10m in diameter among verdant shards of kangaroo grass, the imposing steel framed tower clad in black stained and rough sawn timber comprises two interfacing ‘C’ shape forms that visitors can enter to confront its darkened chambers. On the timely eve of the 250th anniversary of captain James Cook’s landing at Botany Bay, Sydney, the temporary sculpture invites us to better understand the fallacy of terra nullius, which declared Australia as an empty continent awaiting ownership.
The work ‘consciously acts as a vehicle and carrier for forgotten Indigenous histories; to stand these consciously forgotten stories up within the grounds of one our most celebrated architectural icons, the NGV, and to say that they too exist, and that they too must form our shared history and inform our shared future’, states Edition Office’s co-director, Kim Bridgland.
Addressing the misconception of the Aboriginal peoples being solely a ‘hunter-gatherer’ civilisation, In Absence acknowledges the aquaculture infrastructure and agricultural sophistication that existed long before colonisation (including sowing crops, irrigating, harvesting and storing goods).
Scarce’s clusters of hand-blown black glass yams cling to the internal chambers like leeches – a colossal 1,600 in total. Symbolically representing harvested food, and more abstractly the history and memory of the artist’s ancestors, they slowly secrete a murky substance. Marking the walls with their tears, while staining them with truths, their ‘unveiling’ is made all the more poignant as the sun filters down amongst them from the oculus above.
‘In some ways the physicality of the project can be understood as a Trojan horse for the sharing and normalising of Indigenous knowledge and culture,’ explains Bridgland. The void that visitors experience upon entering the tower acknowledges the false absence of a complex society that was never acknowledged by historians.
‘On an aesthetically abstracted level, the C-shaped chambers also reference the function of traditional Indigenous stone eel and fish traps as they funnel people within the twin inner chambers,’ adds Bridgland. Their arced footprints also reference the shape and scale of traditional stone and timber roofed permanent dwellings, despite the common belief that Aboriginals were a nomadic people.
Both Edition Office and Scarce have developed a programme of public events together with the NGV to provide a platform for stories to be told and discussed from an Indigenous perspective, enabling the tower to act as an uplifting space for cultural exchange that draws from a difficult past. ‘For me it is a prolific work that is symbolic of the infrastructure that was built thousands of years ago – and it is still standing strong today. It is a keeper and guardian of knowledge,’ reflects Scarce. §
INFORMATION
In Absence, until April 2020, NGV International. ngv.vic.gov.au; edition-office.com
ADDRESS
NGV International
180 St Kilda Road
Melbourne VIC 3006
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
‘There are hidden things out there, we just need to look’: Studiomama's stone animals have quirky charm
Studiomama founder's Nina Tolstrup and Jack Mama sieve the sands of Kent hunting down playful animal shaped stones for their latest collection
By Ali Morris Published
-
Tokyo firm Built By Legends gives fresh life to a performance icon, Nissan’s R34 GT-R
This Japanese restomod brings upgrades and enhancements to the Nissan R34 GT-R, ensuring the cult of the Skyline stays forever renewed
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Squire & Partners' radical restructure: 'There are a lot of different ways up the firm to partnership'
Squire & Partners announces a radical restructure; we talk to the late founder Michael Squire's son, senior partner Henry Squire, about the practice's new senior leadership group, its next steps and how architecture can move on from 'single leader culture'
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s Park
Twenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhood
Tschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published
-
Wanås Konst sculpture park merges art and nature in Sweden
Wanås Konst’s latest exhibition, 'The Ocean in the Forest', unites land and sea with watery-inspired art in the park’s woodland setting
By Alice Godwin Published
-
Pino Pascali’s brief and brilliant life celebrated at Fondazione Prada
Milan’s Fondazione Prada honours Italian artist Pino Pascali, dedicating four of its expansive main show spaces to an exhibition of his work
By Kasia Maciejowska Published
-
John Cage’s ‘now moments’ inspire Lismore Castle Arts’ group show
Lismore Castle Arts’ ‘Each now, is the time, the space’ takes its title from John Cage, and sees four artists embrace the moment through sculpture and found objects
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Australia’s first Art Grand Tour unites three biennials in a city-hopping trail
Australia’s Art Grand Tour showcases more than 400 artists, across Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in a build-your-own art adventure
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published