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Fiona Hall
Year of production - 2006
Duration - 5min 0sec
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Fiona Hall is an episode of the series Hidden Treasures (15 × 5 mins) produced in 2006.
The National Gallery of Australia has more than 100,000 works in its collection—an extraordinary reservoir of creative vision and cultural history, from decorative arts to photography and sculpture.
Yet on a visit to the gallery, you’ll see only the tip of this iceberg. Carefully stored away are the things that can’t be placed on permanent display.
These unseen gems include works of exquisite fragility, from brilliant hand-painted fabrics to delicate works on paper. From Australia, the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania, there are masks and carvings, lithographs and linocuts, set designs and stage costumes, sketchpads and handprinted books, marionettes and maquettes, teapots and textiles, and much, much more.
Now in this series of micro-docs, former director of the gallery Betty Churcher presents an insider’s guide to some of these 'hidden treasures’.
In the entertaining, accessible style for which she is renowned, Betty Churcher takes us behind the scenes, sharing with us her passion and insights. From her unique vantage point, she makes intriguing connections between a range of different objects and artists, linking them to the stories that surround them.
These are fascinating tales—about the works themselves, the people who created them and the challenge of preserving them—and a tantalising look at some of the ideas and influences that have shaped modern art across the globe.
A Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Early Works. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Full program creditsThe many exotic species brought back from the South Pacific by 18th century European explorers fuelled the western imagination with ideas of paradise lost (in the old world) and regained (in the new).
Australian artist Fiona Hall has created a series of stunning botanical sculptures from sardine tins that she calls Paradisus terrestris. The lids of the tins roll back to reveal tiny sculptural forms.
The series alludes to the western world’s notion of the Garden of Eden and to the enormous variety of botanical species, and implies that paradise may be lost if environmental degradation is allowed to continue.
If, as the saying goes, money doesn’t grow on trees then, in Leaf Litter, Fiona Hall seems also to be telling us that there are some things that no amount of money can buy. In this work, she again reminds us of the fragile diversity of the natural world.
The series consists of 183 sheets each containing a life-size portrait of a leaf, meticulously painted in gouache over banknotes from the leaf’s country of origin. The leaves are transparent in places so that the person on the note underneath shows through. These multiple sheets are then held together with paper tape on the back, which when hung on a wall, allows the lower part to flex and move.
As well as displaying a whimsical imagination and a quirky sense of humour, in Fiona Hall’s work there is a palpable sense of her passion for the beauty and vulnerability of all living things. Only a deep love and commitment would provide the extreme patience required to create these exquisitely delicate works of art.
Digital resources using the clip - Fiona Hall
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