Shahn Stewart — Gunyagawa 2022

Gunyagawa, meaning Bark in Yorta Yorta language, is a material installation in tribute to the Paperbark Tree. The organic form of the tree is deconstructed and reconfigured as a layered and suspended sculpture. A single material is used en masse with varied patterns, colours, textures and lines. With a cohesive gesture, the sculpture holds its own space, enticing movement and flow around and under. Once used by our old peoples for cooking, carrying water, bedding and padding for newborn babies, covering open wounds or injuries, this versatile botanic material holds so much purpose and beauty in its own right.

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Shahn Stewart is an interdisciplinary artist whose decade of experience as a florist has evolved into a contemporary floristry style that channels many influences including her proud Yorta Yorta heritage. As the owner and founder of Alchemy Orange, Shahn’s works express the creative possibilities of organic architecture, as well as the deep importance of connecting to culture through working with sustainable materials, and in turn healing Country.

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Into the Everywhen 

Curated by Alchemy Orange

July 2 - September 3

The Everywhen refers to the spirit manifested at any or all times, represented in the living land, culture and creativity of First Nations people. It was popularised by Dr Stephen Gilchrist, a Yamatji curator and theorist, as a means of describing Australian Aboriginal relations to time and is an expression of what has otherwise been labelled ‘the Dreaming’. The Everywhen is a denial of the linear narrative inherent in settler time/histories

Materials: acrylic on birch

Dimensions: approx. 320cm x 80 cm 

Works will be on exhibition until September 2