Tombs of thought

Tombs of thought: air 2017
Tasmanian oak, burnt plantation pine, brass, glass, acrylic, light box; contents selected from the Art Gallery of New South Wales art collection and the National Art Archive, including digital reproductions of photographs, news clippings and print, catalogues, booklet and watercolour
Purchased with funds donated by Geoff Ainsworth AM and Johanna Featherstone 2018

Brook Andrew’s practice interrogates the histories of archival objects. This sculpture, which doubles as a museum cabinet, contains materials from the Art Gallery’s archives that relate to Alphonse de Neuville’s painting The defence of Rorke’s Drift 1879 1880. Installed on the adjacent blue wall, De Neuville’s artwork has been on near-continuous display at the Art Gallery since it was purchased in 1882.

The catalogues and photographs underscore the painting’s long history at the Art Gallery, while the numerous press clippings illustrate the public interest it generated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The watercolour by Henry James Degacher, who served with the British army in the Anglo-Zulu war in South Africa, depicts the landscape at Rorke’s Drift. It was originally displayed next to the painting.

Gathered together in Andrew’s sculpture, these materials invite us to reflect on the role that De Neuville’s partisan image of British imperialism played in the formation of the Art Gallery’s collection and identity.

Catalogue of The Fine Art Society’s ninth exhibition, together with a full description of Mons. de Neuville’s picture “The defence of Rorke’s Drift”