Monuments and Movements

Majlis Travelling Scholarship Exhibition, Margaret Laurence gallery
Steel, epoxy enamel paint, aluminium composite panels, castor wheels, dimensions variable, August 2019.
Photos by Christo Croker.

Whilst referencing colonial sculptures in general, this installation specifically quotes the Queen Victoria, Edward VII and King George V monuments located in the Queen Victoria Gardens and Kings Domain, local to Margaret Lawrence Gallery.

I am interested to question how does the perpetual presence of historical monuments affect the societies within which they’re situated, when our understanding of history has evolved and continues to be questioned? And as an artist, how can I reactivate the immobile and the static to draw attention to the political structures they represent?

Replicating these monuments as flat, folding silhouettes on swivel castor wheels, the installation acts as an anti-monument alluding to mobility, dissidence, dislocation and its transitory nature. The structures exist in a state of flux between being assembled or dismantled, folded or constructed, ready to be activated for a procession on the streets or alternatively being stored. The reference to a constructivist aesthetic imbues the installation with its idealistic revolutionary ideology.

Also, please see performance Royal Parade related to this installation.