Ex Libris

Ex Libris Monash Faculty of Law Kate Daw and Stewart Russell

Ex Libris Monash Faculty of Law

Kate Daw and Stewart Russell Kate Daw and Stewart Russell’s collaborative practice works across a range of media to consider narratives of place, social justice and identity.

The practice is committed to creative collaboration, co-operation and the involvement of other people in the delivery of their projects. Daw and Russell have realised significant publicly sited and gallery projects over the past decade. Notably, A Simple Act ( 2008 ), first shown at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, and currently on display at the National Gallery of Victoria, reflects on an overlooked history created by Australian athlete Peter Norman, through his involvement in a political action at the 1968 Olympics. Two Homes, initially developed at the MCG during 2010 as recipients of the inaugural Basil Sellers Fellowship, retraces the steps of Walpiri footballer Liam Jurrah back to Yuendumu and concludes in 2016 with indigenous opera singer Deborah Cheetham teaching the National Anthem backwards and upside down to two young singers. Also of note, a major permanent sculpture that took the form of a cast bronze bell and 8m campanile, Civic Twilight End, ( 2010 ).

Supporting Material / Past Projects

Object of protest from Victorian Albert Museum collection

Kate Daw and Stewart Russell Reverse Anthem, Deborah Cheetham, 2018

In 2016, we invited Deborah Cheetham, Yorta Yorta woman, opera singer, opera director and teacher, to rework the national anthem ‘upside down and back to front’.

We also asked if she would to teach this new work to two young singers. We envisaged the work as a record of our experiences working with the community of Yuendumu ( 2010 – 2016 ), a remote Indigenous community 400 kms north-west of Alice Springs. The result was an exhilarating day of learning that resulted in an unimaginable outcome, a lament of impossible claims for a unity through opposites.

Kate Daw and Stewart Russell Two Homes, Yuendumu, 2016

Kate Daw and Stewart Russell Two Homes, Cecily Napanangka Granites,Yuendumu, 2016

Kate Daw and Stewart Russell Two Homes, Yuendumu, 2016

‘ For Jurrah, home sat across two vastly distant and distinctly different locations.

In the work they created as part of the Fellowship, the artistic duo sought to realise the significance of place as an anchor for identity and community and to dissolve the immense geographic expanse of Jurrah’s two homes, represented in the images of the football grounds of both Yuendumu and Melbourne Football Club. For the artists, the personal story of Jurrah embodies not only the vast distance between these two places, but the disjunct between Indigenous and non-Indigenous culture within Australia in terms of language, law and education, and the privilege afforded to non-Indigenous tradition and customs. This focus on the primacy of the coloniser’s language and what this signifies for Indigenous people and the national as a whole, forms the basis of Two Homes, Another World, and inspired Daw and Russell’s collaboration with Yorta Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham AO, Associate Dean ( Indigenous ) at the University of Melbourne. ’ Alyce Neal, Ian Potter Museum of Art

Kate Daw and Stewart Russell A Simple Act, National Gallery of Victoria, 2008

Working with artists from Kaiela Arts in Shepparton to create artwork for the new Monash Chancellery meeting room walls. The design process began with a campfire where the Kaiela artists discussed ideas around education, traditional knowledge and learning. The work created in response to the campfire workshop took the form of charcoal drawings and photographs documenting the event. Wood for the campfire had been collected from significant trees and Eva Ponting used charcoal from the fire to produce a series of drawings referencing her weaving practice. Eva taught fellow artist Suzanne Atkinson to weave and this story of passing on skills informed the direction of the finished artwork. Screen printing with a pigment created from charcoal involved further knowledge and skills sharing between the artists.

Stewart Russell Eva Ponting and Suzanne Atkinson – Kaiela Arts, Shepparton Detail photograph installation, Monash Chancellery Project, 2020

Kate Daw kdaw@unimelb.edu.au +61 3 9035 9454 / 0411 794 122 Stewart Russell stewart@spacecraftaustralia.com + 61 3 9486 0718 / 0426 868 850

Image back cover: Kate Daw and Stewart Russell Civic Twilight End, 2010