Tombs of thought

Tombs of thought: earth 2017
red gum wood, burnt plantation pine, brass, glass, mirror, balloon, aluminium, light box, Lambda print; contents selected from the Art Gallery’s research library and archive, including digital reproductions of photographs, catalogues, postcards, ephemera, objects, books and journals
Purchased with funds donated by Geoff Ainsworth AM and Johanna Featherstone 2018

Brook Andrew questions dominant accounts of history, often by using found images and museum-like display structures. The five Tombs of thought sculptures presented throughout these 19th-century galleries reflect the artist’s ongoing exploration and subversion of museum display conventions, specifically historical ‘cabinets of curiosity’. The inflatable elements feature black-and-white graphic patterning adapted from Wiradjuri shield designs and carvings. Like giant globes, they seem to propose a new world order.

This vitrine houses a selection of images, books and objects from the Art Gallery’s research library and archive that point to the institution’s worldview in its foundational years. 150 years on, after changes in name and location, the Art Gallery acknowledges the traditional custodians of the Country on which it is located, the Gadigal of the Eora nation, and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. Andrew’s sculpture is an attempt to bring these layered histories into dialogue.

Historical interior view of the basement court (court 14) of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales

Historical interior view of the plaster casts and reproductions court of the Fine Arts Annexe to the Sydney International Exhibition

Historical interior view of the entrance to the foreign court of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales

Reproduction of an artist’s impression of the interior of the Clark’s New Assembly Hall, home of New South Wales Academy of Art, first published in The Sydney Illustrated News, 23 March 1878