Brook Andrew's Donut 1 (2011)

Donut I is a floating sculpture representing the optical patterned matrix of Wiradjuri design. Used in other works such as The Cell and Jumping Castle War Memorial, the hard-edge black and white matrix acts as a metaphor for seeing differently. The traditional Wiradjuri design and the contemporary optical experience reference how and what we see as a historical influence on our contemporary lives.

The spherical shape references ancient European and Indigenous depictions of time travel and healing. Israeli physicist Amos Ori designed a time machine in this shape and similarly the form comes from a story that speaks of Aboriginal magic trees that form circle shapes in their branches and are in fact time-travelling objects.

Brook Andrew is an interdisciplinary artist who examines dominant narratives, often relating to colonialism and modernist histories. Through museum and archival interventions, he aims to offer alternate versions of forgotten histories – illustrating different means for interpreting history in the world today. Apart from drawing inspiration from vernacular objects and the archive, he travels internationally to work with communities and various private and public collections to tease out new interpretations.

Most recently Brook presented What’s Left Behind, a new commission for SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagement, at the 21st Biennale of Sydney. In 2017 he created an intervention into the collection of the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, Switzerland; presented Ahy-kon-uh-klas-tik, an interrogation of the Van Abbemuseum archives in the Netherlands; undertook an Artist Research Fellowship with the Smithsonian Institute, U.S.A.; and The Right to Offend is Sacred opened at the National Gallery of Victoria, a 25-year reflection on his practice.

His current research includes an ambitious international comparative three-year Federal Government Australian Research Council grant titled Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial. The project is designed to respond to the repeated high-level calls for a national memorial to Aboriginal loss and the frontier wars.

As part of Melbourne Art Week in August 2018, join Brook Andrew in conversation with the National Gallery of Victoria's Scott Maidment and discover more about this exciting work. Click here to discover more about this free event. 

Brook Andrew is represented by Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and Brussels.