Honeymoon 1992

Honeymoon, Mitchell Library Vestibule, State Library of New South Wales installed for The Boundary Rider, 9^th Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney

A Dangar Family album that had recently come into the collection of the Mitchell Library, it consisted of photographs of young people enjoying their leisurely life on the waters of the Hawkesbury River.  The album provided glimpses of the private lives at the moment of the Federation of Australia but it also revealed clues to their heritage such as a postcard of the “Tree at the Centre of the World”, an ancient oak tree growing beside at a lonely stretch crossroad in rural England. Courtship and marriage, health and wealth seems the implicit concern of the photographs and seemed to mirror what was taking place on the on the new nation in 1901. Honeymoon installed for Boundary Rider the 9^th Biennale of Sydney, was my response to this album.

Special thanks Elisabeth Ellis Curator Mitchell Library State Library of NSW, Anthony Bond Curator Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of NSW and curator of 9^th Biennale of Sydney, Professor Joan Kerr UNSW for Honeymoon catalogue essay, Avenel Mitchell AGNSW for facilitation and support, Jo Holder for soundings, George Hammond, Harradence Glass Decorators, Stephen Mori, Mori Gallery , Australia Council for the Arts.

Detail 2 Honeymoon, 1992 woven photographs 100 x 120cm Photo: Peter Smart

Installation View 2 Honeymoon, 1992 Photo: Peter Smart

Installation View 4 Honeymoon, 1992 Photo: Peter Smart

Cockade, 1992 manipulated book page 15 x 10cm