Swinging branches & rocks build up a visible residue
For Tracing inscriptions 2020/22, a purpose-crafted plotter printer is programmed by Robert Andrew to trace an undisclosed Yawuru text in Latin script, activating strings stretching over viewers’ heads that hook up
to the branches and rocks opposite. Without having ink, the traced letters and words are still left invisible and undisclosed to the viewer. The artist seeks to upend the perceived hierarchy among penned and oral languages – in this scenario, English and Australian Indigenous languages.
Over the system of the exhibition, swinging burnt branches and ochre-coated rocks — suspended by strings controlled by the plotter — slowly but surely establish up noticeable residue on the wall. The charcoal and ochre efficiently produce State on to the partitions, reminding viewers that they stand on Indigenous land. This undermines the trope that a gallery’s white partitions generate a house wherever artworks can be seen without having external reference factors.
The 100
