ANU School of Art postgraduate alumni at Adelaide Festival of the Arts

Congratulations to two ex postgrads Catherine Woo (Painting) and Ken Yonetani (Ceramics) who’ve been selected for Handle with Care: 2008 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, currently on show as part of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Ken’s work is featured on the cover of the Broadsheet, Catherine gets a rave in Sebastian Smee’s review (Weekend Australian Review, p18-19). Ken will also be profiled on the ABC program ‘Sunday Arts” feature story, on air between 5:00pm and 6:00pm on Sunday.

“Sweet Barrier Reef” ‘Handle with Care’ The 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Contemporary Art, 3.6mx12.5m, Sugar, Icing Sugar, Polystyrene foam, Ceramics with a performance by 2 costumed girls serving edible sculptures (coral shaped cakes).

Ken gives the following account of the work: Sweet Barrier Reef focuses on the event of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching refers to the process leading to coral death. River waters containing high levels of suspended sediment cause coral death and bleaching. This sediment often comes from harvesting sugarcane, and is known to be one factor leading to bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. Many large sugarcane fields are located beside coral reefs, leading to coral damage across the globe. In this project, I focus on the connections between consumption and human impact on the environment by creating a reef out of sugar. Here, I do not focus only on the impact of the sugarcane industry; rather sugar is used as a much larger metaphor for our desire to consume and its environmental impact. Sugar becomes a metaphor of human desire. It is also strongly connected to processes of “colonization”, “modernisation” and “consumerism”.