Robyn Backen is a Sydney-based visual artist whose ideas and three-dimensional artworks feature in the Australian Museum's new exhibition Catching... the harbour. Robyn has collaborated on the project since its conception in 1998 with exhibition coordinator John Kirkman, marine biologist Brooke Carson-Ewart and archaeologist Dr Val Attenbrow.
Robyn's artworks are quiet and contemplative, tempting the viewer to stop and rest. The complete meaning of Robyn's artworks is not always obvious. Robyn offers clues for the viewer to decipher.
'Purdah in the Kitchen' exhibited in Mapping Our Countries at djamu Gallery featured a wood wall panel with small lozenge-shaped holes of morse code. This artwork, completed in India in 1999, suggests the decorative perforated stone windows constructed for women in Purdah to view the world. The holes are emphasised with light and the viewer is left wondering what the message is and how to understand the code. It evokes a question of communication.
Robyn has previously referred to Sydney Harbour in her artworks. In 1999, a permanent installation 'Archaeology of Bathing' was constructed for the City of Sydney Sculpture Walk at Woolloomooloo Bay, south of the Andrew Boy Charlton Pool. This work commemorates the Domain Baths for ladies - a bathing machine fills and empties with the ebb and flow of the tides. 'Littoral', a 1998 work, explores fluidity in the concept of what is 'place' through tidal flows in the Harbour.
Robyn also interprets ideas of flow and fluidity through exploration of communication systems. She examines earlier, more restrictive, perhaps obsolete, forms including morse code, braille and telex and is intrigued by new technology and the current flood of information. Fibre-optics feature in her recent works including 'Weeping Walls', constructed in 2000 for Sydney International Airport.
In Catching... the harbour Robyn has further explored these ideas. Film projections feature time lapse tidal flows through mangroves and periscopes use images of flowing water draining into Sydney Harbour. A jetty, leading visitors to an observing space between shore and harbour, references the past and the obsolete. A series of fish x-rays appear luminous using internal lighting effects. Three Aboriginal canoes are brought into a contemporary context veiled in light using fibre-optics evocative of weaving or fishing lines.
Catching... the harbour is very much a collaborative project enabling each contributor to explore their field of expertise in an inclusive way. Robyn sees the exhibition as a connection, science and art 'butting up against each other', and the result is a beautiful, very visual exhibition.
Isobel Kindley
An Australian Museum Website
Copyright © Australian Museum 2003
