Western linear, I-centric approaches to conceptualising, categorising and understanding time, purpose, position and place, have us travelling in only one direction. Indigenous decoding, encoding and recoding tells us, future-forward is not necessarily progression (Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Hall, 1997; Langton, 2002; Mackinlay & Barney, 2014; Thornton et al, 2019; Todd, 2015). The future is not likely to mean survival success for humans and non-humans alike, unless we shift radically. We need to learn time travel through Indigenous art. (Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Langton, 2002; Mackinlay & Barney, 2014; Thornton et al, 2019; Todd, 2015).
What can we see?
barrangal dyara (skin and bones), is an outdoor sculptural installation by Johnathan Jones (2016) comprising 15,000 bleached white, gypsum shields spread over 20,000 metres of landscape in Sydney’s CBD, denoting on-site the shape of a building, The Garden Palace (Fiske, 2010; Hall, 1997; Hall 1973; Jones, 2016). The aerial view indicates the size and scope of the work.
Destroyed by fire in 1892 it was intended, the Garden Palace, (1879) would be the centre-piece for the introduction of New South Wales, to the rest of the world (Jones, 2016). The architectural design, the grandness of the debutante, New South Wales and everything contained within stood to represent claims of successful colonisation. Some of the contents destroyed were stolen Aboriginal cultural artefacts and the remains of deceased Aboriginal people (Jones 2016).
Aerial Image: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jonathan Jones, barrangal dyara (skin and bones) 2016, Project #32, Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney NSW.
But what are we looking at?
barrangal dyara (skin and bones), is one component of Johnathan Jones’ work with Kaldor Public Art Projects. This artwork is densely complex and layered. What it signifies, visually with the Indigenous and non-indigenous socio-cultural processes undertaken in its creation are two aspects of its complexity (Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson (eds), 2002; Hall, 1997; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; Todd, 2015). barrangal dyara (skin and bones), also signifies points of intersection and cooperation between cultures, knowledges, making and eras of time. Assuming the audience can identify the shapes as shields, the colonialists’ building is defined by the laying of contemporary-made, Indigenous shields, created from thousands of years of Indigenous knowledge (Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson (eds), 2002; Hall, 1997; Hall, 1973; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; McLean, 2015; Thornton et al, 2014; Todd, 2015). The audience needs to know or learn something of Australia’s invasion history, the building, the history of this site or its significance to the Eora nation and Indigenous Australians generally, to understand the artwork (Anderson et al, 2021; Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson (eds), 2002; Ginsburg, 2008; Hall, 1997; Hall, 1973; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; Thornton et al, 2014; Todd, 2105).
If, as Hall (1997) suggests, coding or encoding is presenting a message that others can understand then, there are numerous entry points for accessing the conceptual processes and foundations that underpin this work. For example, the location, the building shape, the white shields and the physicality of the work itself (Hall, 1997; Jones, 2016; Todd, 2015). The work asks the viewer to act, to engage (Anderson et al, 2021; Bruno & Wilson (eds.), 2002; Jones, 2016; Ginsburg, 2008; Hall, 1997; Thornton et al, 2019; Todd, 2105). barrangal dyara (skin and bones), like much contemporary Indigenous art, is not solely truth telling. Other elements also present include ancient and modern Indigenous culture, socio-environmental healing and cross-cultural collaboration. Shared and traditional knowledges such as fire knowledge, also exist within this work for those prepared to look deeper. (Anderson et al, 2021; Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson (eds), 2002; Ginsburg, 2008; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; McLean, 2015; Thornton et al, 2014; Todd, 2015).
barrangal dyara (skin and bones) also functions within other areas of knowledge. For example, loss and grief, cultural memory, connection with the land, and decolonisation frameworks. (Bruno & Wilson (eds), 2002; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; McLean, 2015; Todd, 2015). Simultaneously the artwork speaks to the resilience of Aboriginal, people, practices and culture, as well as to the power of Nature (Jones, 2016). Accessing the multiple layers of meaning, metaphors, intention and the enactment of cultural revitalisation processes in the creation of Jones’s work are, embedded within the audience’s ability and willingness to take responsibility for their own engagement with it. Audiences rigid within the western dominant representation-reading paradigm, potentially render the reading inefficient or inadequate. (Anderson et al, 2021; Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Ginsburg, 2008; Hall, 1997; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; Mackinlay et al, 2014; Thornton et al, 2014; Todd, 2015).
What I am proposing is, that to achieve the intended, most comprehensive messages and experiences from barrangal dyara (skin and bones), requires the audience to affect an alternative, interpretive framework. Through which, to witness or experience, ontology and epistemology thousands of years old, intersecting and informing Indigenous and non-Indigenous culture and co-operations in the present. (Anderson et al, 2021; Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Ginsburg, 2008; Hall, 1997; Hall, 1973; Jones, 2016; Langton, 2002; Mackinlay et al, 2014; McCarthy, 2018; McLean, 2015; Thornton et al, 2014; Todd, 2015). What I hope is that, in these days of mass media and mass culture production, we maintain a big picture view and leave enough clean air space for collaborative, divergent, equal and even ancient ideologies to co-exist, perhaps even lead (Bruno et al, 2006; Bruno & Wilson (eds), 2002; Langton, 2002; Todd, 2015).
Thanx for stopping by! Your Friend, In & Out of Plastix!
Juundaal Strang-Yettica March 2022
Reference List:
Anderson Susie, Wouters Niels, Jefferies Ryan, 2021, Decolonising the Urban Screen: An Argument & Approach for First People’s-led Content Programs in Massive Media, Media Architecture Biennale 2021, p.66-78, ACM Digital Library, https://dl-acm-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1145/3469410.3469417, accessed: 16-21.03.2022.
Bruno David; Barker, Bryce; McNiven, Ian J, (eds.), 2006, The Social Archeology of Australian Indigenous Societies, Aboriginal Studies Press, Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, ACT.
Bruno, David; Wilson, Meredith, (eds.), 2002, Inscribed Landscapes: Making & Making Place, University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii.
Fiske, John & Jenkins Henry, 2010, Introduction to Communication Studies, 3rd. ed., p.80-86 & p.157-169, Routledge, London, accessed: 15.03.22.
Ginsburg, Faye, 2008, Blak Screens & Cultural Citizenship, Visual Anthropology Review, Vol.21, Iss:1-2, p.80-97,https://anthrosource-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1525/var.2005.21.1-2.80, accessed: 21.03.2022.
Ginsburg, Faye, 2008, Blak Screens & Cultural Citizenship, Visual Anthropology Review, Vol.21, Iss:1-2, p.80-97,https://anthrosource-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1525/var.2005.21.1-2.80, accessed: 21.03.2022.
Hall, Stuart, 1997, The Work of Representation, Chp.1, p.1-51, The Spectacle of the Other, Chp.4, p.223-277; in Representation: Cultural Representations & Signifying Practices, Sage in association: The Open University, England, accessed: 15-27.03.2022.
Jonathon Jones, 2016, barrangal dyara, (skin & bones), Kaldor Public Art Projects, Forewards: John Kaldor, Kim Ellis & Hetti Perkins, Thames & Hudson Pub, Australia.
Langton, Marcia, 2002, Sensual Inscriptions, The Edge of the Sacred: The Edge of Death, in Bruno, David; Wilson, Meredith; (eds.), 2002, Inscribed Landscapes: Making & Making Place, University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii.
Mackinlay Elizabeth; Barney, Katelyn, 2014, Unknown & Unknowing Possibilities: Transformative Learning, Social Justice & Decolonising Pedagogy in Indigenous Australian Studies, 02.07.2014, Journal of Transformative Education, American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Sage Publications, https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/10.1177/1541344614541170, accessed: 20-27.03.2022.
McCarthy, Naomi Lee, 2018, Embodied, emboldened & recursive art appreciation: exploring identity through contemporary art, Art Education Australia, Vol.39, Iss.2, p.336-354, https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.3316/aeipt.221727, accessed: 21-27.03.2022.
McLean, Bruce, 2015, EVERYWHEN, EVERYWHERE, blog-post, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), posted: 02.05.2015, https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/everywhen-everywhere/, accessed: 03.04.2022.
Thornton, Simone, Graham, Mary, Burgh, Gilbert, 2019, Reflecting on place: environmental education as decolonisation, Australian Journal of Environmental Education, Vol.35, Iss.3, Nov. 2019, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2361735611?accountid=15112, accessed: 19-27.03.2022.
Todd, Zoe, 2015, Indigenising the Anthropocene in Art in the Anthropocene: encounters among aesthetics, politics, environments & epistemologies, Chp. 7, p. 241-254, Open Humanities Press, London.
Bibliography:
Johnathan Jones, 2016, Jonathan Jones, 2016, barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Project #32, 17 September – 3 October 2016, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, John Kaldor Public Art Projects, https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/project-32-jonathan-jones-26.jpg, https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-32-jonathan-jones/, accessed: 21.03.2022.
Langton, Marcia, 2011, Anthropology, Politics & the Changing World of Aboriginal Australians, A Journal of Social Anthropology & Comparative Sociology, Vol.21, Iss:1, p.1-22, 18.02.2011, accessed: 15-21.03.2022.
Langton, Marcia, 1995, What do we mean by wilderness? Wilderness & Terra Nullius in Australian Art, The Summer Papers, Sydney Institute, 12.10.1995, https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/ielapa.970100638, accessed: 21.03.2022.
Langton, Marica, 1994, Aboriginal art & film: the politics of representation, Institute of Race Relations, Vol.35, Iss.4, p.89-106, accessed: 13-20.03.2022.
Montalvo Chaves, Angeles, 2017, Decolonising art & media in Madrid & Sydney: The articulation of political identities in the (in) formal resistance, Thesis: 01.10.2017, UAM, Departamento de Antropología Social y Pensamiento Filosófico,UAMES, https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/677805, accessed: 20.03.2022.
Nakata, Martin, Langton, Marcia, 2005, Australian Indigenous knowledge & libraries, UTS ePress, Broadway, Sydney, accessed: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/39661 , accessed: 20.03.2022.
Thorner, Sabra G, 2015, Inside the Frame, Outside the Box: Bindi Cole’s Photographic Practice & Production of Aboriginality in Contemporary Australia, Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 31, Iss:2, p.163-176, Fall 2015, accessed: 21.03.2022.
Image & Videos:
Image: Jones, Jonathan; 2016, barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Project #32, 17 September – 3 October 2016, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, John Kaldor Public Art Projects, https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/project-32-jonathan-jones-26.jpg, https://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-32-jonathan-jones/, accessed: 21-27.03.2022.
Video: Jones, Jonathan; 2016, A series of six (6) videos released in conjunction with John Kaldor Public Art Projects: Jonathan Jones’s barrangal dyara (skin and bones). Episodes include ‘Gadigal Land,’ ‘The Garden Palace and the Fire,’ ‘Grasslands,’ ‘Shields,’ and ‘Languages, Distribution: YouTube, https://youtu.be/NoafBQIPtp0, [6/6], accessed: 02.04.2022.
Video: Jones, Jonathan; 2016, A series of six (6) videos released in conjunction with John Kaldor Public Art Projects: Jonathan Jones’s barrangal dyara (skin and bones). Episodes include ‘Gadigal Land,’ ‘The Garden Palace and the Fire,’ ‘Grasslands,’ ‘Shields,’ and ‘Languages, Distribution: YouTube, Jonathan Jones – barrangal dyara [4/6] – Shields, accessed: 21.03.2022.
I hope you enjoyed the tour & seriously, don’t leave your rubbish behind!
Your Friend, In & Out of Plastix!
Juundaal 25.03.2022
Juundaal Strang-Yettica 
