| Unstrung was a group exhibition of artists who use beads in their work. The other artists were Kim Collmer, Anna Davern, Stephen Gallagher, Fiona Hall, Partricia Harper, David Dehmann, Dena Lester, Marion Manifold, Nell, Louise Weaver and Louiseann Zahra.
The original concept for the Call Signs project drew connections between radio technology and traditional textiles as communication systems for bridging distance and time. The pedal radio used on remote Australian properties for telephoning, School of the Air and the Flying Doctor; and the communities of Morse code users supported by organisations such as the Scouts, were two of the starting points.
Parallels were drawn with the traditional use of patterns of tattoos, church lace, tartan and basket-weaving to record information such as geneologies and historical information across generations. Beading is another obvious meating place of recorded information and pattern.
The patterns of sound produced by the Morse code indictors and the patterns produced in the needlelace textiles were a natural extension of these ideas about communication and connection across isolating distance.
The resistors and capacitors used in the electronic units are colourful components composed of polyester and the Call Signs units have always used elements of beading techniques to hold them in place. In Call Signs #13 the components were treated explicitly as beads and exploited for their jewel-like qualities.
In this exhibition a partner was made for the red bird which was shown in Call Signs #10. The circuit calls for four resistors installed side by side and this feature was exploited in the structure of the wing of the bird.
The birds were exhibited against a landscape painted on slate-grey linoleum. |
