Medical Series, 1994
mixed media, variable dimensions
collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
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Medical Series, 1994 is a series of ten folded tin or galvanised iron cases.
These are 'case studies' depicting western scientific and medical means of supposedly determining racial difference which is then aligned with inferiority. These cases were my accumulations of scientific understandings of 'identity' at a time when I was directly learning about the position and representation of my extended indigenous family (and thus myself), by people both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal in Tasmania.
I created a series of pieces about the body. There was a freedom in allowing different portions of the body to speak of the ways in which they had been tested and probed. This became a series about processes of collection. The often familiar objects within the cases instigated a dialogue between the viewer and the work prior to the texts being read. These works each had texts from scientific books and journals silk-screened onto perspex which covered and enclosed the objects. This way of assembling objects was pivotal to the future development of works incorporating or eliminating the written word. I began to see the carrying-potential which configurations of objects could hold. This work was central to my Honours submission and subsequently was exhibited in Perspecta 1995 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Intelligence Testing- The Porteus Maze
Test, 1994
tin, plastic, sawdust, paint, sawdust, chrome, acrylic
170.0 x 39.5 x 29.5 cm
Based on the 1930ss anthropological
test-on-paper given
to Indigenous peoples (in this case the Arrernte region of Central
Australia) to determine IQ by the speed one traversed a maze on paper
by pencil. This was the first time these subjects
(Aboriginal people) had held pencil or paper....
Physiological Adaptation to Cold , 1994
tin, polystyrene, plastic, stainless steel, mercury, acrylic
27.0 x 19.0 x 15.0 cm
A
visual reconfiguration of the research of a 1950s Czechoslovakian
research team who 'placed' central desert Aboriginal people in
refrigerated-meat-vans overnight to determine their
Physiological Adaptation to Cold.
Eyeball Weights, 1994
tin, plastic, found objects, acrylic
30.0 x 26.0 x 22.0 cm
Tooth Avulsion, 1994
tin, synthetic and plaster teeth, mixed media, chrome, acrylic
103.0 x 49.5 x 28.0 cm
Physical characteristics- Body Odour,
1994
tin, oil, soap, wax, towelling, acrylic
40.0 x 30.0 x 8.0 cm
Earwax Consistency, 1994
Tin, wax, plastic, acrylic, mixed media
5.5 x 29.5 x 40.0 cm
cabinet
89.0 x 51.0 x 40.0 cm
Fingerprint Patterning,
1994
tin, wax, paper, acrylic, mixed media
Brain
Capacity, 1994
tin, wax, plastic, acrylic, mixed media
Series acquired by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 1995