Beyond the Veneer: a fresh look at the Prime Minister's Suite. Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD), Canberra.
Found objects, slipcast porcelain, over and underglaze ceramic media.
Photography: Museum of Australian Democracy
My work here was part of a MOAD project to reimagine the Prime Minister's Suite in Old Parliament House. Each artist chose a room/rooms in which to work; I chose the typists' room, a small room used by the Press Secretaries of the time, Stephen Mills and Graham Freudenberg, and the office of Sir Geoffrey Yeend, Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1977 to 1986. In the first two offices I introduced made and found domestic objects in an attempt to bring back a sense of the routine everyday working life of the Suite. I knew of the occupant of the third office,Yeend, from my work as Honours Convenor at the ANU School of Art; a scholarship was offered in his name to assist 4th year Honours students with their studies. In honour of the scholarship I therefore made a water jug decorated with an indigenous bee (Amegilla) for Yeend's desk, with a beaker for each recipient. In the decorative arts, an image of a bee often suggests community and working with common purpose and so this seemed an appropriate image for Yeend's jug.