Connection to place takes on a whole new meaning in the artworks of Dr Vanessa Barbay. Her canvases actually absorb the decomposing bodies of birds and animals, creating what she calls ‘the shroud’.
Method & Practice
Vanessa retrieves bird bodies from the sides of roads; recovers desiccated possums, rats and mice from underneath houses; collects unattended carcasses of rabbits, lambs, kangaroos.
In May 2013, the magazine Art Monthly Australia carried an article titled, Vanessa Barbay: Painting our animal selves. In it Dr Melinda Hinkson reviews Vanessa’s PhD graduating show at the ANU, Dead Beauty, saying it, ‘conveys a powerful poetics of death. Barbay is intensively engaged with human-animal relations in the present.’ The article goes on to describe the method Vanessa developed during her doctoral research:
Her practice involves a carefully managed decomposition process, the placement of dead creatures on canvas, laid out on a sprung bed base, left to the elements …. After a period of months the canvases acquire shroud-like impressions of bodies, bits of putrefied flesh, as well as eucalyptus sap, dust, rain, marks left by other animals, and faint grid-like impressions of mesh protecting the animals from other predators.
Vanessa describes her method as a kind of mortuary practice. This is most evident in the final artworks in which the ghost impressions left by the presence of the bodies of animals and birds are clearly seen, such as Falling (Spring Kookaburra) 2020, (above). These are redemptive works that bear witness to the scale of death and destruction happening around us, and that say, I am sorry.
In other artworks, the shroud is a foundation onto which Vanessa layers drawing, painting, mark-making, bringing the presence of time, people, other places into view alongside the creature absorbed in the canvas.
Vanessa began a blog in 2009 to document her doctoral research and has been diligently updating it ever since with posts about her method and practice. I highly recommend taking some time to explore her archive. Not only does it capture points on the path of this artist’s development over the past 15 years, it conveys a sense of how deeply rooted Vanessa is in Jervis Bay.
“As a local woman growing up in Vincentia, like my mother before me, I have a deep sense of belonging to this place shared with Aboriginal friends and mentors.”
“I completed my Archibald Prize entry today depicting my childhood friend and local Aboriginal elder Theresa Ardler using collected ochre pigments, including the pipeclay gifted to me by the late Laddie Timbery, which I used to paint traditional dots around her eyes.”
For the foundation of Possum Pietà – her portrait of Theresa Ardler made earlier this year – Vanessa used a shroud formed from the bodies of a mother and baby possum and a swallow (shown in photo above). Vanessa’s blog post about the artwork describes the work emerging and how the impressions on the shroud assume a new, sharply pertinent meaning:
“The original shroud was a mother and baby possum from summer 2015 which called to me and Theresa in my studio, as she shared her loss of baby Marley Jessie George Ardler. The mother possum stains evoke Theresa’s (possum skin) cloak and the baby possum stains eerily become the body of her baby seated on her knee.”
Everything that ever has been, everything that ever will be
It has been on my mind for sometime to write a profile piece about Vanessa. As thoughts have presented themselves over the months I have pinned them up on the ‘think wall’ of my studio. This past weekend, finding myself in the same space as Vanessa, our paths criss-crossing throughout the day, a swathe of thoughts coalesced.
Last Saturday, Vanessa and I were both among the throng at Bundanon Art Museum for the opening of bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country. The exhibition is a body of works by renowned Gweagal/Wandiwandian storyteller and artist Aunty Julie Freeman, leading Walbunja/Ngarigo artist Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Wiradyuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. It also includes drawings by the significant Yuin artist Mickey of Ulladulla.
In addition, there is a solo exhibition of paintings by Aunty Julie sharing grandmother stories of local plants, animals and weather patterns. During the day Aunty Julie brought the stories embodied in the paintings alive through story telling. The gallery was packed, completely captivated and interconnected in the space of Aunty Julie’s generous sharing of wisdom.
Aunty Julie Freeman lives locally at Wreck Bay and is another significant influence in Vanessa’s life and artworks. Anyone fortunate enough to hear Aunty Julie tell stories will hear a refrain, ‘We are all everything that ever has been and everything that ever will be.’
It struck me that this is what I sense embodied in Vanessa’s layered shroud works (such as Possum Pietà, Summer swallow). There are the obvious physical factors such as: the time it takes for shrouds to form; current artworks made on shrouds formed years before becoming overlaid with a present day subject, drawing threads through time and place …
… but/and there are qualities that cannot be described, they have to be experienced.
Pop-up exhibition 24 November 2024
There is an opportunity to see some of Vanessa’s shroud artworks in the flesh on Sunday 24 November, 11-4pm as part of the Community Connect Day in Burton Street, Vincentia. Vanessa is one of 12 artists in a one-day group exhibition.
Find information about the whole Community Connect Day event on Facebook.
Art Prizes
In my previous post I wrote about the ambivalent role of art prizes in an artist’s practice. Possum Pietà was not selected for the 2024 Archibald Prize. Vanessa has been entering art prizes since 1993 so is more than familiar with the terrain and, as you can see from her CV, she has enjoyed steady success in having works selected and exhibited.
In 2022, Vanessa won the inaugural Halloran Contemporary Art Prize hosted by Jervis Bay Maritime Museum & Gallery with her work Respect This Place (After Uncle Laddie) which, as well as winning, was purchased by a private buyer.
Uncle Laddie was a significant mentor for Vanessa. Her artwork was inspired by his teachings and pays tribute to Uncle Laddie’s lifelong work as a cross-cultural teacher and activist based at Jervis Bay Maritime Museum. You can read Vanessa’s detailed statement about this winning artwork on her blog.
Vanessa tells me she is entering the second Halloran Contemporary Art Prize (open for entries until 29 November) which will be judged and exhibited February – May 2025. I am very much looking forward to seeing her new work.
Permanent public display
Vanessa’s practice encompasses more conventional art making as you can see in her exquisite paintings of birds and plants created for the Bherwerre Wetlands Art Project.
Vanessa was commissioned to create 12 paintings on panels for permanent public display. If you drive along Walmer Avenue from The Wool Road into Sanctuary Point, just past Cockrow Creek, they are clearly visible on the left, elevated above ground level.
Teacher
As well as her visual art practice, Vanessa is an accomplished musician and is currently teaching at Vincentia High School. I trust the students in the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) stream appreciate the artistic talent and skill that’s available to them in having Dr Vanessa Barbay as a teacher.
bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country is on at Bundanon until 09 February 2025.
Profiles of other artists on Jervis Bay Weekend currently include Barbara Dawson, Max Dingle, Akira Kamada, with more to come.
