Title
Untitled (Walyer/Jody #1), from the series Strange Fruit
1994
Artist
Brenda L Croft
Australia
1964 –
Language groups: Gurindji, Fitzmaurice region, Mudburra, Fitzmaurice region, Malngin, Fitzmaurice region
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Details
- Alternative title
- Untitled (Zora/Cathy #1) changed at artist request 18/1/21
- Place where the work was made
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Sydney
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New South Wales
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Australia
- Date
- 1994
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- cibachrome photograph
- Dimensions
- 168.7 x 117.8 x 2.5 cm frame; 152.0 x 101.0 cm sight
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Young Friends of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales 1994
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 171.1995.2
- Copyright
- © Brenda L Croft/Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Brenda L Croft
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
'Strange fruit' was first exhibited in 1994 at The Performance Space, in partnership with Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. The title, 'Strange fruit', is drawn from the Billie Holiday song about the racial atrocities that occurred in the deep south of America, but also considers the use of the term 'hybridity' in relation to contemporary arts practice with cross-pollinated images of racial identity.
In the initial installation, the images were intimate in scale and displayed in conjunction with native and introduced species of fruit and flowers that rotted during the exhibition, while a looped sound-piece comprising the overlaid voices of the women depicted, continuously played. This rich sensory experience played with the notion of 'strange fruit' and what this may be.
The works exhibited here are on a much larger scale. Each of the images provides an intimate portrait of one of Croft's friends assuming a specific character, including Billie Holiday. The work refers to the classification and preconceptions of who is actually of Aboriginal heritage and what an Aboriginal person is supposed to look like in contemporary Australian society. -
Places
Where the work was made
Sydney
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Another Country, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Jul 1999–02 Apr 2000
Half light: portraits from black Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 Nov 2008–22 Feb 2009
Yiribana Gallery: opening collection display, Art Gallery of New South Wales, North Building, Sydney, 03 Dec 2022–29 May 2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Jane Somerville, Look, 'Where to now, Contempo?', pg.28-31, Sydney, Jul 2007, 29.
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