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We are excited to announce that the British Library has recently acquired our artwork Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788.

In 2010 we wanted to make a work to comment and reflect on Australia Day and some of our feelings about the origins of the date – the implications of that event and the repercussions that we live with and navigate today. Through a scorchingly hot day in Toowoomba we worked with cyanotype solutions and selected objects – some from our home and others sourced from the food scraps from a local seafood smorgasbord restaurant on the day.

The work that we did that day emerged as the collaborative artists’ book, a broadsheet we titled, Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788.

We acknowledge the support in the negotiations with the British Library by our agent Helen Cole.

 

A statement about the artwork

Across Australia over the January 26th long weekend, people prepare, cook and consume food to mark this day in history.

For us, this work is our response to, and in recognition of, the ‘turning of the page’ in Australian history that this date represents. One day, January 25th 1788, Aboriginal people feasted on a diverse banquet of bush tucker as they had for thousands of years. The next day, the country was transformed by a new paradigm represented in this work by the table setting of the First Fleet.

Australia Day, for us, is an important time to acknowledge the First Peoples’ perspective and their knowing of land, culture and history and how it should be recognised as underpinning the diversity and identity of contemporary Australia. We, as descendants of European people, are seeking to understand and know more about our place within the longer history of this land.

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View 1: Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788

The 25th of January side of the broadsheet is viewed and contemplated.

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View 2: Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788

The broadsheet is then turned over to view the 26th of January side.

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View 3: Australian Banquet, January 25/ 26, 1788

Finally the broadsheet is held up to the light – the complex interrelationship between the two visual references to be seen and considered.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: A unique state artists’ book broadsheet

TITLE: Australian Banquet January 25/26, 1788

MEDIA: Double-sided cyanotype image in rice paper

DIMENSIONS: 37.6 x 77cm

PLACE & DATE MADE: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 2010

EDITION: 7 unique state variants

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE BOOK’S HISTORY

Two Doors Gallery, The Rocks, Sydnet … Photo: Dawne Fahey

2010 – FINALIST: Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award

2011 – FINALIST: Southern Cross University Artists’ Book Award

2015 – EXHIBITED: ‘Books by Artists’, The Webb Gallery as part of the Artists Book Brisbane Event

2010 – EXHIBITED: ‘Art Bound’, Red Gallery, Glebe, Sydney

2014 – EXHIBITED: Artist’s Books (reprised) [artists’ books 1978-2014]: George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne

ACT-What is Blue Invitation2011

COLLECTIONS, EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS:

2020 COLLECTION: British Library

2015 EXHIBITED: Books by Artists – The Webb Gallery as part of the Artists Book Brisbane Event, Conference at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane

2014 EXHIBITED: Artist’s Books (reprised) [artists’ books 1978-2014] – George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne

2014 EXHIBITED: Alternative Imaging  – Curated by Dawne Fahey at Two Doors Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney

2011: COLLECTION: Australian Library of Art, State Library of Queensland

2011 SHORTLISTED: Southern Cross University Artists’ Book Award, Lismore. Judge: Ross Woodrow

2011 EXHIBITED: BLUE – Arts Council Toowoomba members exhibition, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery

2010 AWARD WINNER: Martin Hanson Awards, Gladstone Regional Art Gallery – Works on Paper

2010 EXHIBITED: Art Bound – Red Gallery, Glebe, Sydney

2010 FINALIST: Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award – Gold Coast City Gallery. Judge: Judy Annear

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Text and © Doug Spowart+Victoria Cooper

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