Connections and Collaboration on Cockatoo as a Conservator for the Sydney Biennale

2 Sep

I have spent the last six months as part of the team of installers, registrars, AV experts, collection managers, curators, artists, technicians, builders, carpenters, electricians and many other experts contributing to 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN. This has been a rewarding experience and as NIRIN is coming to a close this weekend, I thought I could share some of my thoughts.

*Ferry home after work from Cockatoo Island*

*Laure Prouvost - All That Is Here With The Two Cockatoo Too (Dog Leg Tunnel)*

Cockatoo Island draws visitors in - the industrial landscape, the hidden tunnels, the history and the sense of discovery. NIRIN enhances these attributes, with artworks interacting with the structures and the environment in every sense. The artists worked within open spaces, with found objects on the island, within buildings and tunnels, with the history and made connections with the place and the people.

As a conservator for the Biennale team I assisted with condition assessments, installation of the more delicate works and risk assessments. The installation of the works on Cockatoo posed various concerns and challenges and through great team work, collaboration and creative thinking we were able to overcome many obstacles. Cockatoo Island is heritage listed. The majority of buildings and structures are to be protected and preserved. Installations needed to ensure that fixtures and fittings did not interfere with the heritage buildings, while also ensuring that the artwork was safe and secure.

Conservation on Cockatoo was directed by the vulnerability of the work.

What is it made of? Where is it installed? How is it going to be installed? What are the risks?

Each location had various challenges and each artwork had many components - video, audio, projections, as well as the materials and it was only through positive working relationships and respect of individual skills that the works were safely installed. Conservation also needed to be creative and innovative in choice of materials, solvents and level of treatments. There are no suction tables, no access to fume hoods and all work needed to be done in situ, up ladders, on the floor, under torch light and out in the open.

*Tennant Creek Brio - Hanging in lift shaft, Industrial Precinct*

*Tony Albert - Healing Land, Remembering Country (gull nesting)*

Much of the conservation work would be considered quite typical for exhibition installation. Condition reporting, photography, documentation and then through the course of the exhibition cleaning, documentation and more cleaning.

The unpredictable parameters were the weather, the fauna and the pandemic.

The weather, the wind and rain and the storms all influenced where works were exhibited and how. The fauna, the active bird life and the nesting season resulted in a substantial increase in bird activity on the island. For some exhibits the gulls interacted intimately with the artwork and this was with the approval of the artist.

The pandemic, COVID19 caused NIRIN to be closed only 10 days after opening. This was a sad, anxious time for many of the team that had worked for months to get the exhibition up. We had only a few days to isolate, relocate and protect the exhibits and like many - we did not know for how long. The exhibitions were monitored over the lockdown period and we were able to reopen in June.

The urgent states of our contemporary lives are laden with unresolved past anxieties and hidden layers of the supernatural. NIRIN is about to expose this, demonstrating that artists and creatives have the power to resolve, heal, dismember and imagine futures of transformation for re-setting the world. Sovereignty is at the centre of these actions, and shines a light on environments in shadow. I hope that NIRIN gathers life forces of integrity to push through often impenetrable confusion.

Optimism from chaos drives artists in NIRIN to resolve the often hidden or ignored urgency surrounding contemporary life.

— The curatorial statement by NIRIN 2020 Artistic Director Brook Andrews.

This insightful statement resonates in our current world. I am grateful for my participation in the creation of NIRIN and I urge you to visit before it closes.