Duplicity (Day of Mourning)

laser cut satin, vintage military ribbon, woven cord, taffeta, antique gesso frame 

January 26 is the official National Day of Australia marking the landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove in 1788. However, January 26 has long been a day of pain and reckoning for First Nations peoples, with the first Day of Mourning held in 1938.

The work references the craft of lace making and incorporates vignettes from the engravings of Cook’s official artists who accompanied him on his three voyages.  The gentility of lace making is subverted to critique the 18th century aesthetic and its celebration of material wealth. The intention is to address the dualities perpetuated by contemporary legacies of a colonial past.

Lace was seen as an instrument of ‘enlightenment’. Lace making was ‘English’, and ‘Englishness’ was marked out by the suppression of indigenous ways of life to favour European ideas of civilisation and modernity. The motif of scissors and the theme of cutting run through the work.