Image: Dominic WHITE (Palawa, Trawlwoolway) Collared 2023, steel, manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis), messmate (Eucalyptus obliqua), pine, brass padlock, kelp, nylon, rubber, steel padlock, silver. McClelland Collection. Photo by Louis Lim.
This work is comprised of steel, brass, silver, manna gum, (Eucalyptus viminalis), messmate (Eucalyptus obliqua), pine, nylon, kelp and rubber and measures 1.36 metres tall in height by 1.83 metres wide with a depth of 15 centimetres.
Working from left to right are three wooden busts, displaying neck and torso only, spaced evenly apart and mounted directly onto the black wall of the museum.
On the far left, the neck of the first bust has exposed wood in tones of light and dark brown manna gum and is collared with a ring of dark brown steel. From the nape of the neck hangs a smaller upside-down U-bar of steel attached to a long continuous chain which is fastened to the collar of each bust keeping them connected but at an equal distance apart. The chain continues down from the third bust on the far right and loosely hangs down in a large semi-circle from this bust to the first bust on the far left connecting them all together.
The second bust in the centre is carved from messmate another species of eucalyptus, again the smooth wooden surfaces displaying rich tones of deep brown grain and blonde wood. This central bust is collared with large links of darkened black steel which are clasped together at the nape of the neck with a large brass padlock, locked fast without a visible keyhole. Hanging vertically from this padlock on every other chain link are short, approximately ten centimetre piece lengths of flattened blackened steel. These steel pieces protrude out on both the right- and left-hand sides of the chain that hangs down from this central bust, reminiscent of fine vertebrae.
The third and final bust on the far right is wooden but painted black, the markings of the tree from which the bust was carved clearly shown across the textured surface of the bust here. This bust is also ringed with a steel collar but is shaped and turned down the same way a collar of a business shirt would be found to be and is rendered in a highly polished silver steel. Instead of a button the collar is pulled together by the upside down U-bend of silver steel joining the clasp of a locked brass padlock. Suspended from this lock is a string of deep brown kelp, measuring approximately 38 centimetres, the seaweed woven against a spine of silver pendulous like vertebrae falling down or a business tie attached to its collar above.
In a conversation with Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman the artist states, “I’m trying to explore the metaphoric or poetic thing going on where objects communicate more than what they are.” Or as Coleman describes it, White’s play on materiality lend the works a complexity that can be felt more than it can be explained.