shellwall 2015 – Seven-Storey Shell Art Wall – Barangaroo, Sydney

Location: 4/33 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo (above Rivareno Gelato), Sydney
Timings: 24 hours

shellwall 2015 may be seen on the southern façade of the Alexander residential complex, which serves as a southern gateway to Barangaroo’s waterfront promenade, Wulugul Walk.

The piece is a collaboration between Bidjigal/Eora elder and senior artist Esme Timbery and Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. It highlights the important shell-work legacy of La Perouse as well as the modern practice of respected artist Esme Timbery, a fourth-generation shell artist.

Jones and Timbery have collaborated on a number of exhibitions, short films, and projects, but this is the first time they have made a work of this size and startling simplicity.

It is made of numerous 8mm-thick aluminum panels, resulting in a 22.35 × 3.5 metre artwork. Each panel is adorned with a variety of larger-than-life cast aluminum shells welded to the screen next to their corresponding cut-out shell shapes on the panel. Aunty Esme arranges and designs the shells using patterns similar to her famed harbour bridges, boxes, and booties.

The two artists first met in 1998, when they exhibited together in a display called Djalarinji at Manly Art Gallery and Museum. Since then, they have had a fruitful dialogue, and in 2001, as part of the Sydney Opera House Message Sticks Festival, they worked together on the special commission of the first shell-worked Sydney Opera House. Jones developed the sculptural form, and Timbery shelled it, which is currently in the National Museum of Australia’s collection.

Emily McDaniel, a former assistant curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery NSW, collaborated with the artists to bring the project to life, which reflects both the culture of the traditional owners, the Gadigal/Eora people, and the more radical changes brought about by Sydney’s modernity.

McDaniel writes, “The inverted and twisted shell panels appear as if a portion of the oyster-encrusted seashore has been placed on the structure. These shells reflect an enduring link to Country, requiring extensive understanding to source and operate with them. During the colony’s founding in Sydney, Barangaroo was well-known for its shell middens, which were often burned to generate lime for the mortar that now binds many of the city’s sandstone buildings together.

Shellwall 2015, the first public artwork commissioned and built under the Barangaroo Public Art and Cultural Plan, debuted on December 18, 2015.

Watch following video of the artists discussing their work.

Esme Timbery

Esme Timbery, a Bidjigal artist and elder, was born in 1931 and comes from a long line of shell workers on the Aboriginal reserve of La Perouse in Sydney, Australia’s longest urban Aboriginal community. The Timbery family has long been an integral component of Sydney’s cultural life. The Timbery surname has been documented since the early 1800s, and her great-grandmother was ‘Queen’ Emma Timbery, a prominent community leader and well-known shell-worker. Esme Timbery and her late sister Rose Timbery, like other shell artists, learned how to organize shells by type, size, and color from their moms, grandmothers, and aunts. In the 1940s, they joined the shell-working network and started selling their work.

The forms, which are sometimes fashioned from cardboard, are covered in material and shelled before being topped with glitter. Individual family styles are recognized and understood, as are the designs and patterns made from various types of shells, as well as the arrangement. Esme Timbery’s work includes shelled boxes, ornamental booties or little slippers, frames, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is a reoccurring theme. Her shell work has been exhibited across Australia and is in the collections of the National Museum of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, and Newcastle Art Gallery. In 2007, she was the subject of the documentary She Sells Sea Shells, and in 2005, she was granted the inaugural Parliament of New South.

Jonathan Jones

Sydney-based Jonathan Jones, an Aboriginal artist from the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi nations of southeast Australia, works in a variety of mediums, including printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and video. He makes site-specific installations and interventions in space that use light, subtle shadow, and the repetition of shape and materiality to investigate Indigenous traditions, connections, and ideas. Jones frequently uses recycled and repurposed everyday materials, such as fluorescent lights and blue tarpaulin, to investigate the relationships between community and individual, personal and public, historical and current.

He has completed several large public art contracts, including the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Sydney and Wagga Wagga Regional Airport. Jones has previously attempted to depict both the traditional and contemporary by working with the specific site’s historical usage and current perspective. These two frames, which are frequently seen as diametrically opposed, are actually linked, sharing commonalities and linkages; Jones’ artworks serve to honour both.

The act of collaboration is central to Jones’ practice, and many projects have seen him collaborate with other artists and communities to create outputs that honor local knowledge systems and relate the site to local problems. Jones has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation in Sydney and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, as well as the Palazzo delle Papesse Contemporary Art Centre in Siena, Italy and the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, Canada. Jones received the Kaldor Public Art Projects’ Your Very Good Idea Award in 2014.

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