Title
To see or not to see
2022
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 2022
- Media categories
- Sculpture , Glass
- Materials used
- jade green reflective glass, copper, iron, rust, verdigris patina
- Dimensions
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111.3 x 757.9 x 4.0 cm overall
:
a - left panel, 111.3 x 251.4 x 4 cm
b - centre panel, 111.3 x 251.4 x 4 cm
c - right panel, 111.3 x 251.4 x 4 cm
- Credit
- Commissioned with funds provided by the Barbara Tribe Bequest 2022
- Location
- Portico
- Accession number
- 222.2022.a-c
- Copyright
- © Karla Dickens/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
-
Karla Dickens
Works in the collection
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About
Cross-cultural Wiradjuri woman Karla Dickens unflinchingly interrogates post-contact Aboriginal experiences and the continuing legacies of colonialism and patriarchy. In the niche above the doorway of the Art Gallery she uses materials that nod to the adjacent bronze panels, the rusty metal of Sydney humpy towns – once home to so many First Nations people, including Dickens’ grandmother – and the clear blue-green of the the harbour’s life-sustaining waters.
The imagery derives from hoods Dickens first made from raw calico, and from vintage tea towels of the type her grandmother might have used. In Dickens’ hands, the hoods become potent symbols of the violent silencing and enforced control that are part of the legacy left to Aboriginal women today.
From her home in Bundjalung Country (Lismore, NSW), Dickens works towards healing and change through truth-telling. She reminds us that, under the cover
of these hoods, ‘the hooded are still bearing witness’.
