Australian Aboriginal Culture: Research Archive, Tool and Monument, 2003
The aboriginal culture of Australia has always captivated me. I am drawn to their painting and mapping, their visual understanding of their world, as well as to their environment, the desert. This project began with research into the many indigenous cultures of the world and developed into a profound study of one.
Archive | Tool | Monument
I developed and designed an archive for my research. It is a collection of all my notes into eight (8) bound notebooks and one collograph print: a map of the paths my research took. Every significant entry in my notes has a number and color, which correspond to the embossed map. The map represents the culture as an environment and terrain and one unfamiliar to me. It is a symbolic landscape (an idea important in Australian Aboriginal painting) and one through which my research has taken me. The visual record of my exploration is communicated on a presentational level, and all the details of that journey are preserved in the accompanying books. The eight books signify eight points of focus: Painting, Iconography, Me (reflexive), Culture, Rob (Professor Rob Carter), and Theory (Philosophy).
Archive | Tool | Monument
The tool and the monument communicate the importance of water in the aboriginal / desert culture. In Aboriginal art and iconography, the large circles represent water holes. Knowing where they can be found in an environment is necessary for life.
The tool I developed is a water carrier: to be worn around the body. Its form makes reference to Aboriginal body painting designs). The water carrier can be slung around the shoulders or crossed on the back. I also created a handheld water carrier, even small sips of water are precious in the desert. I used plumbing materials to fashion these tools and marked each with data about water usage and waste around the world. These sobering facts honor the way desert cultures appreciate water and encourage all of us to conserve.
The tool and the monument communicate the importance of water in the aboriginal / desert culture. In Aboriginal art and iconography, the large circles represent water holes. Knowing where they can be found in an environment is necessary for life.
The tool I developed is a water carrier: to be worn around the body. Its form makes reference to Aboriginal body painting designs). The water carrier can be slung around the shoulders or crossed on the back. I also created a handheld water carrier, even small sips of water are precious in the desert. I used plumbing materials to fashion these tools and marked each with data about water usage and waste around the world. These sobering facts honor the way desert cultures appreciate water and encourage all of us to conserve.
Archive | Tool | Monument
The monument is another meditation on the conservation and reverence of water, and a visual reference to aboriginal painting and mapping. By appropriating and incorporating the manholes of the city and the spray paint markings of soon-to-be-incised streets, the monument is a system of symbolic water holes. As an intervention into our everyday world, the monument calls attention to the convenience of our urban and industrialized system of water, and celebrates water through subtle recognition, rather than a gesture of grandeur and waste. This is the way a desert culture perceives a prized resource.
The monument is another meditation on the conservation and reverence of water, and a visual reference to aboriginal painting and mapping. By appropriating and incorporating the manholes of the city and the spray paint markings of soon-to-be-incised streets, the monument is a system of symbolic water holes. As an intervention into our everyday world, the monument calls attention to the convenience of our urban and industrialized system of water, and celebrates water through subtle recognition, rather than a gesture of grandeur and waste. This is the way a desert culture perceives a prized resource.
