UNSW Library Online Exhibitions
UNSW Library Online Exhibitions
 

The Sydney Rock Oyster is vulnerable to change in its environment caused by global warming and coastal development. In this Online Exhibition, Tasmania-based artist Dr Sarah Jane Moore asks us to listen to the Bandangi – the Sydney Rock Oyster. The artworks, poetics and songs weave together the oysters’ survival with cultural revitalisation, and make tangible the connectivity of science, art and stories.

Worlding With Oysters is the result of Dr Moore observing and interpreting the research of Wiradjuri scientist Dr Laura Parker, Indigenous Scientia Fellow in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Dr Parker aims to ‘future-proof’ natural oyster populations through building resilience to ocean warming and acidification.

Through materiality, process and practices, the works in this exhibition are embedded with knowledges and wisdoms that give a renewed significance to the urgency of preserving the Bandangi. In this dialogue between science and art, the oyster shell becomes a vessel for ancient stories and a call to arms for us all to invest in imagining futures where communities respect, nurture and care for Sea Countries.

The work presented in Worlding With Oysters has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

 
 
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Opening remarks: Dr Brendan Burns, senior lecturer, school of biotechnology and biomolecular sciences

Video: Brian Landrigan

 
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spoken word poetry

Sarah Jane Moore performs the poetics of Wordling With Oysters:

 
 
 
 
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Carrying Futures
mutton bird oil, river clay, ochre, acrylic, crystal and Killiecrankie beach pebbles on primed canvas panel

Carrying Futures shows a personal memory of Sarah Jane with her daughter Daisy on the shores of Wallis Lake, using mutton bird oil, river clay, ochre and pebbles from Killiecrankie beach on Flinders Island:
This work manifests connection and magic. Carrying futures; carrying daughter, carrying oyster, carrying mother, carrying river. This work and its elements are precious.

 
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Memories of the Black Swan
ochre, bloodwood tree sap, gold leaf, mutton bird oil, river clay, ground oyster shells, she-oak charcoal made in controlled back yard fire, Taroona river clay and acrylic paint on primed canvas panel

This work began with an embodied gesture of remembering; a swirl of ochre from the river, smeared on the canvas with an open hand encountering rivers of abundance, rivers of plenty, rivers of life. I learned recently that in past times, when oysters were plentiful, the Black Swan were too. My river was black with them. Swan numbers, like reefs have declined. Swans pair for life and both adults share in the raising of their one and only brood per season, so sustainable harvesting meant that supply was on-going. Local families harvested the nests sustainably, taking only one egg, or one cygnet, from each nest which typically held 4-8 greenish-white eggs. The ghosted swans ride the river in a constant state of flow and connection.

Magic Moon
ochre, acrylic, mutton bird oil, river clay and white board marker on primed canvas panel

Magic Moon embodies the relationship Sarah Jane creates between science and art. Created during a video conference with the scientific organising committee of the Astrobiology Australia Meeting at UNSW, attendees storied with Sarah Jane about wonder, passion and respect:
We told stories about the desert, mapped hot springs and pondered the stars. These mappings created the first layer of the work. Throughout the next iterations, I began to bring in my present thinking and tracked how my new home had gifted me a blood moon, a magic and sacred prophesy on a connected and integrated, positive future. In my painting, the moon hangs high over the water, it transfixes and reminds us of the theatricality of mother earth, the magic of the tides and of the power of the place I call home.

 
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Bushfire, Flames and Scar Tree
ochre, mutton bird oil, ground oyster shells, gold leaf, Taroona river clay, she-oak charcoal and bloodwood tree sap on primed canvas panel

Made in response to the 2019-2020 bushfires in NSW, Bushfire, flames and scar tree recalls the need the feel connected to family in the face of loss:
Bushfire, Flames and Scar Tree enacts a memory when I was fleeing the bush fires with my family and looked up and saw the black sky burning. This image carries realisations of fear and entrapment, loss and trauma. December, like many other years we packed the family car and drove down the South Coast. We stopped in for a surf at North Wollongong, saw dolphins at South Beach and travelled on down the coast. Seeking family time, connection and the deep love and belonging that comes from years of salty swims, we arrived to a familiar beach, this time littered with charcoal and ash. This year the bush was burning. I looked up and saw the church on the hill in flames. I looked up and back and into a burning future. From the safety of my home studio, seven months later I used gifted banksia, sea sponges and charcoal to record the loss of habitat, the scarred, charred lands, rivers and sea Countries and the long drive home.

 
 

Way Down Deep She Liesochre, bloodwood tree sap, gold leaf, mutton bird oil, river clay, ground oyster shells, she-oak charcoal, acrylic paint and Taroona river clay on primed canvas panel

Using ground oyster shells and ochre, Way Down The Deep She Lies tells the story of an eagle once flying solo above a healthy reef, only to fly too close to the sun and falls from the sky:
Like the moonbird, this bird flies solo. This bird flies too close to the sun and like Icarus and like the peace dove before her, she falls from the sky. Down, down deep into her watery grave. She dives. She drowns. There are no more fish for her. For her, no birds sing. Loss of place, loss of culture. Loss.

Dance of Waratah
ochre, bloodwood tree sap, gold leaf, mutton bird oil, river clay, ground oyster shells, she-oak charcoal made in controlled back yard fire, Taroona river clay and acrylic paint on primed canvas panel

In Dance of Waratah Sarah Jane uses the waratah as an intergenerational symbol, linked to water, land and family to explore her own homesickness during a time when she can’t leave Tasmania:
This painting was triggered by a conversation with my neighbour who told me that there was a Tasmanian Waratah that he has seen in the Harz Mountains that was such a deep red and such a splash of colour that it took his breath away. Smaller than the NSW variety, it has become mythical to me. My neighbour has seen it and described it to me and I know it to be true and yet my knowing, my worlding is yet to come. Steeped in the knowing of the NSW Waratah, I am home sick. I long for the story and for light and for future and something yet to happen and places yet to see. I long for a return to the oysters, the Sydney Rockies, for life as it was and as it will be.

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Remembering River Gum
ground Sydney rock oyster shells, Killiecrankie diamonds, Flinders Island Shells, Taroona river clay, ochre, mutton bird oil and acrylic on primed canvas panel

In this self-portrait, Sarah Jane uses ground oyster shells from Dr Laura Parker’s past experiments as traditional markings on the body:
Remembering River Gum brings to mind womanhood and mother earth in the deep spirit of self – the role of culture, county and oyster in our interconnected and interrelated lives. Ochre and shell become skin and body, bringing old stories into new spheres.

 
 

Songs

 
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Dr Laura Parker

Dr Laura Parker, Indigenous Scientia Fellow, UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, describes her research on future-proofing natural oyster populations and working with artist Sarah Jane Moore.

Video: Anton Rehrl - Corvid Photography

 

Installation view – main library exhibitions space

 

Dr Sarah Jane moore and dr laura parker in conversation

Recorded during NAIDOC Week 2020, UNSW Library’s Curator Jackson Mann interviews Dr Sarah Jane and Dr Laura Parker. They share insights into their collaboration as an artist and scientist, the experience of women in their industries and the importance of the 2020 NAIDOC week theme 'Always Was, Always Will Be'. This interview was made possible by the UNSW Women’s Wellbeing Academy.

Worlding With Oysters is presented as part of the UNSW Library Exhibitions Program. The work presented in this exhibition has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

For enquires about the artworks contact the artist directly: sarahjane.moore@unsw.edu.au

All artworks © the artist. Online exhibition, photos and videos © The University of New South Wales. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright holder, unless the use falls within an exception of the Copyright Act (such as research or study).

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