Pears on a Willow is a site-specific sculptural installation for Linden New Art that explores the poetics of domestic spaces and their embedded histories. This work results from research into two historical narratives: that of the Linden site itself: a family home originally built for Jewish immigrant Moritz Michaelis in the nineteenth century; and the journey of the artist’s own Polish grandparents, who emigrated to Australia after the Second World War. While these two histories differ in circumstance and timeframe, their stories intertwine and overlap in their discussion of trauma, perseverance, survival and love.
Both are also characterised by gaps in story; many details have been lost through the passing of time, resulting in fissures in narrative and fragmented details. Drawing on the sculptural legacy of artists such as Alina Szapocznikow, Dorothea Tanning and Louise Bourgeois, the various elements in this installation reflect the uncanny nature of this incomplete state, but they also aspire to healing, preservation and acceptance. The title of the work echoes that of the Polish expression ‘pears on a willow’, which refers to something desirable but impossible to obtain, reflecting the artist’s elusive desire to join the dots. This work explores the complexity of personal histories, the unreliable nature of memory, and the poetics of the in-between states that characterise our domestic spaces and lived realities.
All photos: Simon Strong