KARLA DICKENS

Project Name: To see or not to see

Location: Art Gallery of New South Wales

Commissioner: Art Gallery of New South Wales

Materials: Glass, Copper, Iron, Rust, Verdigris

Dimensions: 1081x7536mm

Description: Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens’ mixed-media artwork depicting hooded figures is a powerful exploration of the continuing legacies of colonialism and patriarchy. The materially rich work – with sea-green glass referencing Sydney Harbour and a patina that reflects the bronze panels on the iconic sandstone facade of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ existing building – has been installed above the entranceway of the building. Located in the niche above the front door, Dickens’ work fills the space left empty by the contentious cancellation of a 1913 commission by the Australian sculptor Dora Ohlfsen.

Axolotl worked with Dickens and the AGNSW Curatorial team to develop and fabricate To see or not to see. 

The location provided the challenge of installing a semi-permanent artwork onto the heritage façade with no additional holes or fixings into the sandstone. This challenge was overcome with an engineered compression frame system that was designed, built, and tested to suit the artwork.

The artwork is composed of three glass panels made with a combination of Axolotl’s proprietary glass and metal techniques. 

Each panel was first kiln formed in Jade lustre glass. The kiln slumped technique enabled the silhouette of the hooded figures to sit pronounced and was selected in homage to the Bas-relief style of Ohlfsen’s original commission.

The lustre glass has a uniquely reflective quality that activates the artwork with haunting, glowing figures visible even from the footpath across the road from the gallery. No additional lighting or backlighting has been incorporated into the work.

The glass panels were then each treated with Axolotl’s semi-precious metal Link process to inlay Copper and Iron metals onto the surface. Dickens’ intricate hooded figures use a combination of Brown Rust, Black Rust and textured Majestic Rust to highlight the design, while the copper background received a complementary sea green Verdigris patina which was polished with guidance by Dickens at the Axolotl workshop.

About: From her home on Bundjalung country (Lismore, NSW), cross-cultural Wiradjuri woman Karla Dickens works in a wide range of media, unflinchingly interrogating subjects such as race, violence, gender and injustice. To these strong topics she brings an exquisite sensitivity and a black humour in equal measure.

Around the same time she was preparing ‘A Dickensian Circus’ for the Biennale of Sydney (and now in the Gallery’s collection), Dickens was invited, as one of six NSW women artists, to contribute a proposal for a sculptural panel for the Gallery’s historic facade.

Dickens says the hoods depicted in the sculpture commission – speak of enforced invisibility and act as reminders of some of the worst agonies of recent Aboriginal experience. ‘The work’, she says, ‘is about women and invisibility … the legacy of Aboriginal women today.’ The final commissioned work will be, she adds, ‘important to me, and to my mob from northern New South Wales, to have this chance to speak.’

Extract retrieved from https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au, To see of not to see, 2019