[An interpretation of the Garden Palace], 2016 / by Jonathan Jones

PXE 1810

fonds

2016-01-01

Graphic Materials, Clippings

1009222

1 collage - newspaper clipping with cutouts - 10.7 x 34.9 cm

Jonathan Jones is a Sydney-based Aboriginal artist who works across a range of mediums, from printmaking and drawing to sculpture and film. In 2014 he was announced the winner of Your Very Good Idea, a competition hosted by Kaldor Public Art Projects. For the project Jones produced barrangal dyara (skin and bones), a vast sculptural installation stretching across 20,000 square-metres of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden. The installation comprised 15 000 replica shields based on four typical designs from Aboriginal nations of the south east, laid out to represent the footprint of the Garden Palace.
The Garden Palace was a purpose built structure, built to house the colony’s first International Exhibition in 1879. Jonathan Jones’ barrangal dyara (skin and bones) was an Indigenous response to the enormous number of Aboriginal artefacts that were lost when the Garden Palace was destroyed by fire. The installation took its name, barrangal dyara, from the local Sydney Gadigal language, on whose country the project took place with approval from the community. It is an example of the reinterpretation of historical documents, being an illustrated newspaper, of the time. Illustrated newspapers were a popular medium in the nineteenth century and significantly, the building of the Garden Palace and consequent Exhibition featured heavily in all of the illustrated newspapers at the time.
Reference: Library aquisition file

A special edition artwork or collage, by Jonathan Jones, being an original copy of a newspaper etching printed in The Illustrated Sydney News of the Garden Palace, 1879, with shield shapes cut into it. The artwork was produced in 2016 for an exhibition in the Palm House in the Royal Botanic Gardens, staged in conjunction with the barrangal dyara (skin and bones) project 32 Kaldor Public Art Prize.

Copyright status:: In copyright - Life of creator plus 70 years
Copyright holder:: Jonathan Jones
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy Jonathan Jones/Kaldor Public Art Projects