How could picture-perfect Heron Island – a remote coral cay on the Tropic of Capricorn north east of Gladstone – possibly be the subject of an artist’s ecological scrutiny?
In her latest exhibition – on display at the UQ Art Museum from October 7 - Brisbane-based Indigenous artist Judy Watson explores findings made by researchers at The University’s Heron Island Research Station.
The artworks, which respond to Ms Watson’s Heron Island residency, examine worrying signs of the impact of human activity and the onset of global warming on the Great Barrier Reef.
“For over two decades, Judy Watson has found the most sublime way of asking questions about the Indigenous history of this country – you are gently seduced by shimmering layers of pigment, pulsing colour and simple forms before you realise that you are being confronted by uncomfortable facts about the past,” Director of the UQ Art Museum Nick Mitzevich said.
“But this residency was different in that there is no known history of Indigenous occupation on Heron Island.
“Instead, Watson has turned her attention to what scientists are saying is happening in the marine environment, with works ranging from an extraordinary ‘freshwater lens’ – a large blue-green brass sculpture suspended in the gallery space – to a series of brilliantly coloured etchings, paintings, works on paper, video and a sound work.”
Ms Watson was artist-in-residence at the Heron Island Research Station in February 2009, her visit coinciding with the official reopening of the facility, which was destroyed by fire in 2007.
Her new work builds on previous projects where her images responded to the natural environment, particularly the Indigenous use of native plants, but also to the idea of a subterranean water source.
“I was fascinated by the idea of a lens-shaped body of fresh water that lies beneath the coral cay above the salt water, the fresh water helping to sustain the plant life and the island ecology – on Heron Island, for instance, the pisonia trees provide a home to thousands of Noddy Terns," Ms Watson said.
“The freshwater lens reminded me of the subterranean water in my grandmother’s Country in the Lawn Hill Gorge area of far-north-western Queensland, feeding the land from a source underground.
“The freshwater lens is an amazing resource, whose purity is threatened by rising sea levels and storm surges, so even though it’s something you can’t actually see, I decided it would be the perfect floating sculptural form.”
Ms Watson produced a maquette of the freshwater lens with Urban Art Projects, which fabricated the brass sculpture in China, with the final verdigris patina applied back in Brisbane.
In a number of works, Ms Watson obtained permission from scientists she met on Heron Island to include their graphs about how ocean acidification, changes to sea-surface temperature, El Niño and global warming is impacting on coral bleaching and the breeding success of seabirds such as the wedge-tailed shearwater (also known as mutton birds).
A video work focuses on a turtle hatchling’s perilous struggle through sand to reach the sea, with its chances of survival slim when the threat posed by predators and plastic is taken into account.
On March 11, 2009, shortly after her residency on Heron Island, the Moreton Bay oil spill occurred, with 250 tonnes of oil from the container ship Pacific Adventurer washed up on Moreton and Bribie Islands, and the Sunshine Coast.
Ms Watson responded to this event in a number of paintings, her works warning of how such events can devastate the marine environment.
Judy Watson’s exhibition continues until November 22, 2009.
Judy Watson: Heron Island will be launched on October 9 by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Smart State Premier's Fellow (2008–2013) and newly appointed Director of The University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute.
Media: Nick Mitzevich (0434 361 383, 3365 3046, n.mitzevich@uq.edu.au) or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723, penny.robinson@uq.edu.au)
