RE FORMATION part III
(Noogoon/St Helena Island)

The work, RE FORMATION part III (Noogoon / St Helena Island) has been reimagined to connect to the local history. Every iteration of RE FORMATION sees the name change so that the form can connect to the local, site-specific lime-burning history, an industry that was prevalent throughout coastal communities in Australia, and led to the desecration of middens along the East Coast.

In RE FORMATION part III (Noogoon/St Helena Island), Cope adapts dry-stone wall construction to create a young midden of hand-cast concrete shells embedded in black, sand-like copper slag. Noogoon, later named St Helena Island, is situated where the Brisbane River enters Moreton Bay, and was a key site for the lime burning industry in this region.

Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow writes:
“Carefully placing grey, cast concrete oyster shells upon each other in layers, Cope evokes the timelines and tidelines of ancestors who would have travelled to this site downstream from Moreton Bay and Quandamooka country. Interspersed with sand-like particles of black copper slag, her work speaks to industry, recent sand mining and the burning of oyster shell middens in the early contact period to create a cement-like mortar. The removal of this trace of past generations fuels new construction.”

RE FORMATION part III (Noogoon / St Helena Island) was been acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), purchased with funds from the Contemporary Patrons, through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation.


EXHIBITION HISTORY
-  Water, QAGOMA. Curated by Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow; 7 December 2019 to 26 April 2020.

PRESS
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-30/water-exhibition-brisbane-olafur-eliasson-angela-tiatia/11823782

Documentation by Natasha Harth, QAGOMA.