LEARNING | NIRIN AT HOME: Tony Albert

Tony Albert
Born 1981 in Townsville, Australia
Lives and works in Sydney, Australia
Tony Albert's project for NIRIN extends and expands upon his Blacktown Native Institution project, which aimed to support Aboriginal custodianship, to honour the Native Institution and their families, and raise awareness of the Stolen Generations in the broader community. For the project, Albert had local children gift written memories to the former children of the Institution, written on paper imbedded with native seeds.
The Native Institution (a former residential school for Indigenous children, established in 1815) was the beginning of Australia's Stolen Generations. The Blacktown Native Institution site (where the Institution moved in 1823) was handed back to the Darug people in 2018.
Albert’s work for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Healing Land, Remembering Country, is a new gesture of ‘memory exchange’. Presented as a sustainable greenhouse at Cockatoo Island, the work poses important questions such as: how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories?
The greenhouse acts as a site for reflection, writing and giving. It is filled with an immersive installation of hanging baskets, displaying the weaving and basket making practices of Indigenous artists and communities from around Australia, that act as the holding places for people’s letters and memories. Many community baskets are based on the shape of other carrying vessels and are objects with multiple purposes and meanings: as cradles, to hold food and for use in ceremonies. These are artworks that intimately care for what is placed in them. Visitors, including families and children, are invited to use the house as a space for reflection and conversation, and to create messages in the form of ‘gifted memories’ on handmade paper imbedded with native seeds to place in the baskets.
The greenhouse is also a place for planting, to step into warmth, light and mist; to witness the growth of plants native to New South Wales; and to experience a healing atmosphere. Visitors are able to plant and pot their seed letters, placed on a tiered structure to show the growth of the plants. The greenhouse is open to the diverse international and local visitors of the Biennale, and Albert has worked closely with the Public Programs and Learning team to engage communities, and to build specific programs of ‘memory exchange.’
The project also acts as an opportunity to rejuvenate the land through vegetation (which, after the project, will be planted in locations selected in close collaboration with communities) and to heal it through collective memories.
Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf.
Images | Tony Albert, 'Healing Land, Remembering Country'
NIRIN AT HOME | RECYCLED SEED PAPER
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WHAT YOU WILL NEED
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Note: At this point in time, seeds might not be easy to come by. They can usually be purchased in supermarkets or plant nurseries, but you can also prepare your own seeds from any fresh fruit or vegetables you have in the house. Otherwise, skip the seed step and make some beautiful seed-less recycled paper!
Paper (any paper around your home that can be recycled such as school notices, letters or envelopes)
Blender
Spatula
Seeds (smaller is better such as tomato, chilli, strawberry, cucumber)
Cooling rack
Screen (fly wire or fine mesh fabric)
Old tea towel -
METHOD
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- Rip the paper into small pieces and soak in water for no less than three hours.
- Pour the paper and the water into a blender and blend into a fine pulp. You may need to add more water so the pulp can be easily be poured. *Adult supervision needed for this step
- Position the cooling rack over the sink and place fly wire or mesh on top.
- Pour the pulp onto the fly wire or mesh and spread evenly with a spatula.
- Sprinkle seeds and gently push into pulp.
- Place fly wire or more mesh on top of pulp and cover with a tea towel.
- Press down gently to remove excess water and to flatten the pulp.
- Remove the top layer of mesh/wire and leave the pulp outside to dry, preferably in the sun.
Share your work with us!
We’d love to see how you use these resources at home. Post your stories and photos on Instagram with the hashtag #NIRINathome.