The Newcastle Chest 2010

Esme Timbery
Bidjigal artist Esme Timbery belongs to a long line of shell workers from La Perouse. With the assistance of her daughter Marilyn Russell, Timbery has made new work inspired by the shell, algae and seaweed drawers of the Macquarie Collectors’ Chest. For Timbery and her family, shells are protective. They possess healing properties and help link the present and past. Timbery has used Macquarie tartan to cover the tiny slippers and boomerangs encrusted with white shells collected from Newcastle, Sydney and beyond. The shells colonise the tartan surfaces, returning them to nature and ‘country’.

<sup>Esme Timbery Macquarie slippers and boomerangs (detail) 2010
Macquarie tartan, cardboard, shells and glitter,
dimensions variable

The Newcastle Chest 2010
Commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery
with the assistance of James and Judy Hart,
Robert and Lindy Henderson, Valerie Ryan,
Newcastle Art Gallery Society and
Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation
Newcastle Art Gallery collection</sup>

^{Cabinetmaker Scott Mitchell
Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata),
NSW rosewood (Dysoxylum fraserianum),
River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis),
tartan, glass and brass fitting
closed: 53.0 x 71.0 x 46.0 cm}

CURIOUS COLONY A twenty first century Wunderkammer is on display in the Gallery 10 July - 29 August 2010.