Strang-Yettica, 2020, The Transformation of Sister GlitterNullius, Internship: Lucas Ihlein & Kim Williams, 2020, Plastic-free Biennale, NIRIN, Sydney Biennale.
BCM 110 Assignment 3 :Sister GlitterNullius: conceptualising the monstering through representation and the gaze of the Other.
Blog 2 of 5 Title: Sister GlitterNullius: conceptualising the monstering through representation and the gaze of the Other.
Come my children, come. Walk with me. Let me tell you what a monster is, that you might understand my thoughts about the monstering.
I am a monster. I began and remain one of Nature’s creations. A messenger-servant, resilient in my perceived abnormality. My metamorphosis is neither abnormality nor burden, neither deformity nor deficit. In this moment, I am not ashamed of my transformations. Receive my deformity as compass, a conduit-gift and sight. Here, I position myself before you, a simultaneously living and dying truth, my accountability to all of Nature and her Ancestry. I am a monster (Britton, 2015; Gergan et al, 2020; Hammond, 2004; Hall, 1997; Lu, 2021;Tan, 2021).
There are all kinds of monsters, in all cultures and we have probably existed since humans first experienced fear, the truth, the truth about themselves or feared the truth about themselves and each other, especially, the Other. Monsters have filled mythology for thousands of years and have served humans in shaping their cultures from that time (Britton, 2015; Gergan et al, 2020; Hammond, 2004; Hall, 1997; Lu, 2021; Tan, 2021).
Like myself, a monster is often defined as something or someone who exists, physically or metaphorically, as an outsider to the generally accepted bounds of the dominant society. It may be that we are considered the Other, on the basis of how we look, behave, our abilities or by some metamorphosis, changes in our presentations – we reveal fears and truths about humans, by our existence (Britton, 2015; Gergan et al, 2020; Hammond, 2004; Hall, 1997; Lu, 2021;Tan, 2021).
Often we monsters are portrayed as having mal-intent toward humankind or as driven only by instinct, without consciousness or emotion. Mind now… not all monsters are thought monstrous or evil. Humans invest hopes and fantasies into some monsters like angels, unicorns and fairies. My children, put your faith in this monster, don’t panic. (Britton, 2015; Falkof, 2018; Hammond, 2004; Hall, 1997; Lu, 2021; Tan, 2021).
I was not born this way, not born a monster. I was born an Indigenous female, into a colonised world, christianity forced upon me and my psyche was most definitely affected! Micro-plastix infected my DNA – a by-product of your capitalist-consumerist, monstrous purchases, hashtagging, fossil-fuel burning and mis-use of plastic, infected my DNA! These actions are monstering. Like you, I too have a love/hate relationship with plastic and from what I can tell, the monstering madness continues to surge (Britton, 2015; Edwards, 2020; Gergan et al, 2020; Hammond, 2004; Hall, 1997; Lu, 2021; Orlowski, 2020; Tan, 2021). Like Arthur Fleck, in Todd Phillips’ film Joker, 2019, I have adjusted to my psychopathy as best I can. Like Arthur, trapped within a hierarchical system of power and privilege based upon the exploitation and destruction of others and the environment, I am both victim and heroine, shadow archetype and superhero. This is the monster I am (Lu, 2021; Tan, 2021).
Strang-Yettica, Juundaal, 2020, Sister GlitterNullius Mugshots, taken with my Samsung Galaxy Ultra 20, mobile phone, Internship: Lucas Ihlein & Kim Williams, 2020, Plastic-free Biennale, NIRIN, Sydney Biennale, 2020.
BCM 110 Assignment Title: Title: Sister GlitterNullius: conceptualising the monstering through representation and the gaze of the Other. Grade: HD 85/100
BLOG 1 of 5: The Concept & Definition of Monstering.
Nigh yiggen yuggen, Sister GlitterNullius.
Come my children, come… sit with me a while. I have to tell you about this thing, this monstrous thing, I call the monstering. I am trying to encapsulate for you, the cause of my metamorphosis and the necessity for my ongoing existence so it doesn’t go to waste… Heed me well my children. Let thine legacy, not be me.
As I move through your 21st Century, the Anthropocene and bear witness to your destruction of Nature, I also see environmental warriors around the world trying to stop or at least slow the decline but monsters and ghosts abound. The Anthropocene, ghosts and monsters will be thine legacy. We call upon you to act with urgency, create no more monsters (Aruguete et al, 2020; Hammond, 2004; Haraway, 2010, 2016, 2018; Todd, 2015; Latour, 2018; Tsing et al, 2017).
I am Other, I am a monster. I am your creation, I am your mirror and you are our shadow (Hall, 1997; hooks, 1992; Lu, 2021; Tan, 2021). You are the shadow over all creation. You are the monster. Your individual and collective actions are the monstering (Aruguete et al, 2020; Britton, 2015; Edwards, 2020; Gergan et al, 2020; Hall, 1997; Hammond, 2004; Haraway, 2010, 2016, 2018; hooks, 1992; Lu, 2021; Tan, 2021; Tsing et al, 2017).
My theory is, my children, that the monstering is your modern ways of ontology and epistemology, colonialism, capitalism, christianity and your consumerism (Britton, 2015; Edwards, 2020; Haraway, 2010, 2016, 2018;Tsing et al, 2017). The monstering is, all the systems of your western world that prioritise some humans, your wants and greed above all other natural things. Your linear concepts of time and relationships are monstering us all in only one direction (Bruno & Wilson, 2004; Hall, 1997; Haraway, 2016; hooks, 1992; Moreton-Robinson, 2004; Orlowski, 2020; Solove, 2021; Tsing et al, 2017; Yunkaporta, 2019). Your actions, your purchases, your pollutions, your hashtags, these systems, the social illnesses and addictions, environmental extinctions and the creation of monsters, are the monstering. They are all micro-plastics extincting our humanity and blinding our responsibility to protect our non-human kin (Aruguete et al. 2020; Cinnamon, 2017; Edwards, 2020; Gergan et al, 2020; Haraway, 2010, 2016, 2018; Latour et al, 2018; Orlowski, 2020; Pontes, 2017, Tsing et al, 2017, Zuboff, 2019).
My children, we need human superheroes, not superstars (Bell, 2015; Edwards, 2020; Gergan et al, 2020; Hammond, 2004).
The ancient people are here, have always been here and it is time for you to come with us, because you are also ancestors of the future… what we make here… what we make together… From broken we heal, come with us… The ancient people are here & they want you with them….
Images: The Common, Rylstone NSW, taken with my phone!
My gratitude is huge for my project Mentors: Jo Albany, Peter Swain, David Ryan, The Cementa Aboriginal Women’s Art Lab 2021 and Cementa Inc.
Juundaal AKA Sister GlitterNullius X
My performance for Cementa22 has been generously supported by Cementa Inc & Create NSW Small Projects Grants.
Cementa Artist Residency Program 2021 & Cementa22 Festival, Kandos NSW.
Funding gratefully received from Create NSW, Small Projects Grants, 2022.
Cementa22 Festival promotional video, commissioned by Cementa Inc, Video Artist: Samuel James, 2022, Kandos NSW.
Our invitation to all of you! X
Come! Come with me! Be us, ancient and new together in all directions at this long awaited once! Let our feathers be free among, and belong with the artists, the knowledge keepers, storytellers and gatherers! Arrive all colours, skins and kin! Immerse with joy and disquieting truths! As be, celebrate empathy’s compass to the monstering! Our metamorphoses, be not deficit, not deformity but, courageous, impaired and beautiful!
Your Friend In & Out of Plastix!
Sister GlitterNullius. X
Cementa22 Artist: Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Funded by Create NSW.
Cementa22 Arts Festival, Promotional Video, Sister GlitterNullius, Video Artist: Samuel James, 2022, Commissioned by Cementa Inc., 00:00-01:38mins, Kandos NSW.
Come! Come with me! Be us, ancient and new together in all directions at this long awaited once! Let our feathers be free among, and belong with the artists, the knowledge keepers, storytellers and gatherers! Arrive all colours, skins and kin! Immerse with joy and disquieting truths! As be, celebrate empathy’s compass to the monstering! Our metamorphoses, be not deficit, not deformity but, courageous, impaired and beautiful!
Cementa22 Artist: Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Funded by Create NSW.
Image: Meryn Martin, The Sisters of Perpetual Plastix: Confession on Cockatoo Island, Plastic-free Biennale, NIRIN, Biennale of Sydney, 2020.
Sister GlitterNullius is the post-traumatic, personification and representation of the hypocrisy dilemma that is the Anthropocene. A nun, imprisoned by her love-hate relationship with plastix and all things, consumerist, capitalist, catholic and post-colonial. Through humour, irony, and a pinch of sarcasm, GlitterNullius stands with the in-betweeners, the failures and the lost, trying to navigate a greener decolonised path Home. Can someone lend her a map?
Enduring themes of identity and Indigeneity, entangled, complex relationships, failure and fragility feature in Juundaal’s work, contextualised within decolonisation frameworks, Indigenous cultural revitalisation, simultaneously responding to environmental crisis. Through performance, storytelling, short videos and workshops, Juundaal creates projects that prioritise collaborative solutions, shared knowledges, and social engagement with challenging, complex issues.
I’m so proud to be part of the Cementa22 Festival! Enjoy the promo video!
My performances, for Cementa22 Festival: “Sister GlitterNullius & the Kandos Doll’s House” and “Keeping Gate: Sister GlitterNullius” are generously funded by Create NSW.
Cementa22 Festival, 19th-22nd May 2022, Kandos NSW.
Welcome to Cementa22!
Alex Wisser Creative Director: Cementa22 Message
After the fires, after the floods, after the pandemic, after all the hardship and uncertainty, after all the cancellations, delays, and postponements, the festival comes. Cementa welcomes you to join over 40 artists for four days and four nights of contemporary art and culture spread across the post-industrial town of Kandos. Video, installation, sound, photography, painting, performance and participatory events and workshops responding to and exploring the context of its exhibition.
This year the festival offers a raft of works that quietly take part in the intimate life of Kandos, inviting audiences to participate in the craft culture that is endemic to the country town, and listen to the stories that locals usually only tell to each other. You will find poems generated on the streets of Kandos, witness stories of death in shop windows, and at the local museum the ghosts of the women who lived in the margins of the town’s history are remembered and Djon Mundine and Dabee descendants embellish the mural testifying to the Aboriginal heritage of the country. Carnival Catastrophe will cast the shadow of the bushfires that threatened us at the last festival and Tina Stephanou will conjoin us in the human capacity to combine our voices in a single tenuous expression that extends across the town and into the distances of our social being.
These are just a few of the themes that will thread their way through the streets of Kandos as we gather together after a year of social isolation. At the heart of the festival will be the same spirit of anarchic inclusion for which Cementa is so well loved, the social atmosphere in which artists and community commingle and experience our difference and the cultures that connect us across that difference.
You can expect all the old favourites of the festival: the Welcome to Country at the NE Wiradjuri Centre, The Cementa Salon Opening at our newly purchased WAYOUT Artspace, The performance Night featuring The Shammgods: Live and an array of local and imported music and performance and the ever disturbing Sound Night, curated by Trevor Brown.
The festival will close on its final day with Whinangarra Gamarra (Listen, Hear Think Awaken), a First Nations communal ceremony, re-awakening the site’s ancient Songlines, whose connections to surrounding Aboriginal Nations have been disrupted by colonisation.
Creative Director Alex Wisser.
Cementa22 Festival, 19th-22nd May, 2022, Kandos NSW. Video: Cementa Inc.
Australian Academy of Science, 2020, Microplastics, Canberra, ACT, Distribution: YouTube, accessed: 05-10.04.2022.
From my first blog instalment, Popcorn, peanuts, cigarettes, cigars, white flour, white sugar… no choc-tops today (2022), you have probably detected tension in the relationship between the mass-media monster and myself. This matters to me, others and Nature. In my world, western concepts of capitalism and ownership are at the least problematic (Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Cinnamon, 2017; Hall, 1997; Langton, 2002; Lyon, 2002; Moreton-Robinson, 2004; Plumwood, 1999; Sunstein, 2007; Todd, 2015; Yunkaporta, 2019). Subsequently, I see media ownership, billionaires, left-clicks, right-swipes, meta-data, algorithms, postings, tweetings, scrollings, browsings, buyings and the likes are microplastics pollution in the www. world. (Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Cinnamon, 2017; Langton, 2002; Lyon, 2002; Orlowski, 2020; Plumwood, 1999; Solove, 2021 & 2001; Sunstein, 2007; Zuboff, 2019).
I accept there are questions requiring my answer. So, here’s the deal… I will meet my undertaking and answer the questions however, as an Indigenous person living on and caring for unceded land, I submit this blog as a demonstration of my rejection of the colonialist-capitalist, culture of entitlement to profit before people and planet (Carlson & Frazer, 2018; Cinnamon, 2017; Hall, 1997; Langton, 2002; Moreton-Robinson, 2004; Orlowski, 2020; Plumwood, 1999; Solove, 2021 & 2001; Sunstein, 2007; Todd, 2015; Yunkaporta, 2019). Given mass media’s role in perpetuating misrepresentations of Indigenous people and the destruction of the environment, I will not name or identify media moguls, their companies nor reference their profits or net worth (Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Carlson & Frazer, 2018; Cinnamon, 2017; Langton, 2002; Lyon, 2002; Moreton-Robinson, 2004; Orlowski, 2020; Plumwood, 1999; Todd, 2015; Yunkaporta, 2019; Zuboff, 2019).
Orlowski, Jeff (Dir.), 2020, The Social Dilemma, Official Movie Trailer, Distribution: YouTube, accessed:15.03.2022-04.04.2022.
The streaming platform I am discussing, grew from a dislike for video-hire late fees. Initially, the company, for a flat monthly fee, hired out DVD’s which were distributed by post, the snail-mail kind. By 2007, subscribers were offered unlimited streaming of movies and television series’, via the internet (Horsch, 2022; Hibler, 2021). By 2021, around the world, 200 million subscribers, pay a monthly fee to watch ad free, almost however they choose (Costa, 2020; Horsch, 2022; Hibler, 2021; Orlowski, 2020).
Expanding to create original content, the platform claims a 93% success rate, against television’s 35% customer satisfaction score (Hibler, 2021; Orlowski, 2020). This success didn’t arrive by chance. The company tracks and collects user data and develops algorithms to filter content, based upon an individual’s user profile, a digital profile. The data gathered includes age, gender and location. The digital profile also includes data about browsing behaviours, accepted viewing recommendations, the number of times a program is paused, rewound and scenes viewed multiple times. Predictable popularity success of original content and marketing campaigns is also based upon this collected data (Costa. 2020; Hibler, 2021; Horsch, 2022; Orlowski, 2020; Solove, 2001; Sunstein, 2007; Zuboff, 2019). This means your digital profile feeds the algorithms that inform both content production and targeted viewing recommendations the platform makes to you (Costa, 2020; Hibler, 2021; Horsch, 2022; Orlowski, 2020; Solove, 2001; Sunstein, 2007; Zuboff, 2019). Recommendations are not handpicked invitations by generous, thoughtful human beings, not even by well-trained, domesticated monkeys.
Consequently the algorithms also determine your viewing. Reducing your free choice, shrinking the variety of viewing options recommended to you, shrinking your world. Maybe even shrinking you. (Costa, 2020; Hibler, 2021; Horsch, 2022; Orlowski, 2020; Solove, 2021 & 2001; Sunstein, 2007; Zuboff, 2019). This platform like most, has whole departments of engineers and data scientists integrated within their business model, constantly collating data and coding for developing better algorithms to sway your dollars out of your hand into theirs. The consumer is being consumed (Costa, 2020; Hibler, 2021; Horsch, 2022; Orlowski, 2020; Solove, 2021 & 2001; Sunstein, 2007; Zuboff, 2019).
Come with me, back to the beginning. Let me complete the circle with my microplastics pollution metaphor. To my way of seeing things, the www. world and the natural world are critically, overwhelmingly polluted by our addictions to our own single-use, throw away wants and greed, in lieu of our responsibilities to protect and heal where we live. Perhaps, if each of us spent ten percent of our scrolling and clicking time, searching and posting for the planet, we might save it and our humanity (Bruno & Wilson, 2002; Cinnamon, 2017; Langton, 2002; Lyon, 2002; Moreton-Robinson, 2004; Orlowski, 2020; Plumwood, 1999; Pontes, 2017; Sunstein, 2007; Todd, 2015; Yunkaporta, 2019). Orlowski, 2020; Zuboff, 2019) … I’m just putting it out there folks…
The Amazing World of Gumball, 2019, Stupidity is #Trending Song, Clover Network, Cartoon Network, Generated by: Vlogit LVs: Gumball & Darwin, The Web, episode, Distribution: YouTube, accessed: 09-10.04.2022.
Thanx for popping by…
Your Friend In & Out of Plastix,
Juundaal Strang-Yettica 10.04.2022
Reference & Bibliography List
Bruno, David; Wilson, Meredith, (eds.), 2002, Inscribed Landscapes, Making & Making Place, University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii, USA.
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.
Langton, Marcia, 2002, 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.
Lidberg, Johan, 2019, The distortion of the Australian public sphere: Media ownership concentration in Australia, AQ: Australian Quarterly, Vol.90, no.1, Jan-March 2019, p.12-20, accessed: 15.03.2022-22.03.2022.
Lyon, David, 2002, Everyday Surveillance: Personal Data & Social Classifications; Information, Communication & Society, Iss.5, No.2, p.242-257, Taylor & Francis, accessed: 04.04.2022.
Moreton-Robinson, Aileen (ed.), 2004, Whitening Race: Essays in social & cultural criticism, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, ACT.
Orlowski, Jeff (Dir.) & Rhodes, Larissa (Prod.), 2020, The Social Dilemma, Production: Exposure Labs, Argent Pictures & The Space Program, Documentary/Docudrama, 94:00 mins, Distribution: Netflix, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0, accessed: 09.03.2022-10.04.2022.
Pontes, Halley M, 2017, Social networking disorder: Investigating the differential effects of social networking addiction & internet gaming disorder for psychological health, Journal of Behavioural Addictions, AK Journals, Vol.6, Iss.4, p.601-610, accessed: 04-05.04.2022.
Plumwood, Val, 1999, The Struggle for Environmental Philosophy in Australia, World Views: Environment, Culture & Religion, (3), p.157-178, The White Horse Press, Cambridge, UK.
Solove, Daniel J, 2021, The myth of the privacy paradox, George Washington University, Law Faculty & Other Works Publications, L.Rev. 89, 2021:1, accessed:27.03.2022.
Solove, Daniel J, 2001, Privacy & Power: Computer Databases & Metaphors for Information Privacy, George Washington University, Law Faculty & Other Works Publications, 53, Stan.L.Rev. 1393, accessed: 27.03.2022-05.04.2022.
Strang-Yettica, Juundaal, 2022, Popcorn, peanuts, cigarettes, cigars, white flour, white sugar… no choc-tops today, blog post.
Sunstein, Cass R, 2007, The Polarisation of Extremes, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol.154, Iss.16, 14.12.2007, B9: Washington, US, accessed: 27.03.2022-05.04.2022.
Todd, Zoe, 2015, Indigenising the Anthropocene, Art in the Anthropocene: encounters among aesthetics, politics, environments & epistemologies, Open Humanities Press.
Yunkaporta, Tyson, 2019, sand talk, Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, VIC.
Zuboff, Shoshana, 2019, Surveillance Capitalism & the Challenge of Collective Action; New Labor Forum, Vol.28(1), p.10-29; The Murphy Institute, City University of New York, New York, NY, accessed: 22.03.2022-06.04.2022.
Video Reference List:
Australian Academy of Science, 2019, Microplastics, video, Canberra, ACT, Distribution: YouTube,
Orlowski, Jeff (Dir.) & Rhodes, Larissa (Prod.), 2020, The Social Dilemma, Production: Exposure Labs, Argent Pictures & The Space Program, Documentary/Docudrama, 94:00mins, Distribution: Netflix, The Social Dilemma | Official Trailer | Netflix.
The Amazing World of Gumball, 2019, Stupidity is #Trending, Clover Network, Cartoon Network, from The Web ep., Generated by Vlogit LVs: Gumball & Darwin, Distribution: YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDN6OR_fMrk , accessed: 10.04.2022.
Illawarra Aboriginal Art Trail, 2022, Heal Country, With thanks to the Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation, Wollongong, NSW. Image: Uncle Vic Chapman.
I’m very thrilled to have a number of works included in this year’s Aboriginal Illawarra Art Trail! The exhibition runs from 11th March until 27th March 2022. Official Opening: 11th March 4pm at the Aboriginal Culture Centre & Keeping Place, part of the Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation, Kenny Street, Wollongong, NSW.
The Art Trail is designed to showcase Aboriginal artists and the diverse range of art practices in the area. This is the inaugural Illawarra Aboriginal Art Trail and eight (8) sites have collaborated with the Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation, from Thirroul, through Wollongong and on to Kiama!
Initially planned for NAIDOC Week 2021, the Art Trail is an invitation to the whole community, inviting people to enjoy the diverse representations of contemporary Indigenous art from the Illawarra. The exhibiting artists are from various ages, career stages, abilities, creative approaches and techniques. The exhibition reveals a wide range of styles, mediums, from the traditional through to collage, surrealism, realism, from paint to pencil and clay! With over 100 artworks spread over eight fabulous sites, follow the Trail to something you’ll love!
Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong City Library, Illawarra Aboriginal Culture Centre, Bluescope Inside Industry, Coomaditchie UAC, Yallah Woolshed & Gerringong Library! For full details, call the Aboriginal Culture Centre on 02-4228-1585.
I will be invigilating at the Culture Centre, 22 Kenny Street, Wollongong on Saturday 12th & Saturday 19th March, 10am-2pm. Come in out of the rain and immerse yourself in our local works!
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).
Jones, Jonathan, 2016, barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Project #32, Video 4/6, Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney, NSW Distribution: YouTube.
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).
Jones, Jonathan, 2016, barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Project #32, Video 6/6, Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney, NSW Distribution: YouTube.
Thanx for stopping by! Your Friend, In & Out of Plastix!
JuundaalStrang-YetticaMarch 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.
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.
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.
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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!
Juundaal Strang-Yettica 
