WATCHING
A collaborative exhibition by Anna Louise Richardson and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah.
Watching embodies the sensation of being approached, watched or singled out by animals, either wild or domestic but not pets, and the emotive resonance of these moments – reflecting ideas of death, fear and preternatural communication with the natural world. Raising a young family in a rural environment, the exhibition builds on their shared experiences to articulate a personal lore that voices their relationships with other living creatures. Renewing mythologies about the cyclical processes of life, Watching embraces both the magical thinking of childhood and the pragmatism of living in close proximity to nature.
Often making work about death – always through the depiction of animals, Anna’s drawings examine their cultural, commercial, and ecological role but also how animals can manifest in personal tragedy. In 2020 her mum passed away and she began to have strange interactions with birds in the year that followed. She diarised these close encounters that often occurred in moments of emotional tension, then drew the birds of prey she met – owls, crows, eagles - monster sized, with eyes turned to the viewer as if seeking emotional resonance from animal witnesses. Drawn around the birth of her last child these works are about the possibilities of preternatural communication with the natural world and connecting via animals to those who are no longer here.
As part of the exhibition Anna has produced Augury – The diary of birds on West Space Offsite as a collection of writing and recorded conversations that describe experiences of preternatural communication with the natural world. These stories delve into those moments when contiguous worlds overlap, and the trauma of loss reconnects us to the world outside in new and unexpected ways.
Titled Pair, Abdul-Rahman’s work explores the idea of the animal fugitive, those that slip through the agricultural system as neither pets nor livestock, left to adapt and grow old. The sculptures are based on a pair of resident sheep, whose lives are focused on both seeking out and fleeing human interaction as they become unkempt masses of wool. Traumatised by their survival in an environment predicated on their demise, the sheep have become neurotic characters in a darkly psychological landscape. Pair reimagines their interactions with our children, the curiosity that gravitates each towards the other marked by panic once an invisible threshold is crossed. Between the sheep and the children there is a vividly mutual recognition of the monstrous other that mirrors reactionary behaviours within broader human binaries. Sheep occupy specific cultural spaces – in Australian nationalist mythologies and Abrahamic theologies as a passive resource. Affording them the nuance of individuality questions our perceptions of the other, and how the roles we've imposed may frame our outlooks. Abdul-Rahman outsourced the crocheted wool finish for Pair to regional mother daughter artist duo Holly O’Meehan and Jill Paynter-O’Meehan, known as the Golden Wattle Hookers.
West Space, Melbourne, VIC.
14 May - 10 July 2022.
CLICK HERE TO READ AUGURY: THE DIARY OF BIRDS
Watching embodies the sensation of being approached, watched or singled out by animals, either wild or domestic but not pets, and the emotive resonance of these moments – reflecting ideas of death, fear and preternatural communication with the natural world. Raising a young family in a rural environment, the exhibition builds on their shared experiences to articulate a personal lore that voices their relationships with other living creatures. Renewing mythologies about the cyclical processes of life, Watching embraces both the magical thinking of childhood and the pragmatism of living in close proximity to nature.
Often making work about death – always through the depiction of animals, Anna’s drawings examine their cultural, commercial, and ecological role but also how animals can manifest in personal tragedy. In 2020 her mum passed away and she began to have strange interactions with birds in the year that followed. She diarised these close encounters that often occurred in moments of emotional tension, then drew the birds of prey she met – owls, crows, eagles - monster sized, with eyes turned to the viewer as if seeking emotional resonance from animal witnesses. Drawn around the birth of her last child these works are about the possibilities of preternatural communication with the natural world and connecting via animals to those who are no longer here.
As part of the exhibition Anna has produced Augury – The diary of birds on West Space Offsite as a collection of writing and recorded conversations that describe experiences of preternatural communication with the natural world. These stories delve into those moments when contiguous worlds overlap, and the trauma of loss reconnects us to the world outside in new and unexpected ways.
Titled Pair, Abdul-Rahman’s work explores the idea of the animal fugitive, those that slip through the agricultural system as neither pets nor livestock, left to adapt and grow old. The sculptures are based on a pair of resident sheep, whose lives are focused on both seeking out and fleeing human interaction as they become unkempt masses of wool. Traumatised by their survival in an environment predicated on their demise, the sheep have become neurotic characters in a darkly psychological landscape. Pair reimagines their interactions with our children, the curiosity that gravitates each towards the other marked by panic once an invisible threshold is crossed. Between the sheep and the children there is a vividly mutual recognition of the monstrous other that mirrors reactionary behaviours within broader human binaries. Sheep occupy specific cultural spaces – in Australian nationalist mythologies and Abrahamic theologies as a passive resource. Affording them the nuance of individuality questions our perceptions of the other, and how the roles we've imposed may frame our outlooks. Abdul-Rahman outsourced the crocheted wool finish for Pair to regional mother daughter artist duo Holly O’Meehan and Jill Paynter-O’Meehan, known as the Golden Wattle Hookers.
West Space, Melbourne, VIC.
14 May - 10 July 2022.
CLICK HERE TO READ AUGURY: THE DIARY OF BIRDS
Anna Louise Richardson, Am I being told off (butcherbird), 2022, charcoal on cement fibreboard, 97 x 123cm
Anna Louise Richardson, I asked for a sign (wedge-tailed eagle), 2022, charcoal on cement fibreboard, 202 x 126cm
Anna Louise Richardson, Are you waiting for me (owl), 2022, charcoal on cement fibreboard, 131 x 75cm
Anna Louise Richardson, What am I gathering (crow), 2022, charcoal on cement fibreboard, 132 x 90cm
Anna Louise Richardson, You are always here, sometimes too close (magpie), 2022, charcoal on cement fibreboard, 117 x 87cm
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Pair, 2022, painted wood and wool (fleece by Golden Wattle Hookers), 115 x 150 x 60cm each & 115 x 150 x 60cm
Anna Louise Richardson, Not seeing is worse than knowing what’s there, 2017-2022, HP Latex Print onto HP PVC Free wallpaper, 746 x 355cm.
The wallpaper was presented as an immersive mural across an entire wall of the gallery space. Over the duration of the exhibition visitors are invited to add up to four different sets of animal eyes into the shadows.
Several kids activities were available during the exhibition including stickers, colouring pictures, temporary tattoos and masks.
Several kids activities were available during the exhibition including stickers, colouring pictures, temporary tattoos and masks.
This project was supported by Australia Council for the Arts, Dept of Local Govt, Sports and Cultural Industries and Regional Arts Western Australia.
Photography: Janelle Low