Jan Hogan, Peter Hughes, Sarah Stubbs, Zoë Veness
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania
15 December 2023 – 31 March 2024
Tracing threads of re-making
Copper, brass, silver solders, patina finishes, wax
560 x 1080 x 10 mm
Vestige is in response to the Hamilton Inn Sofa which was made in Tasmania around 1830. No-one knows who made it or who commissioned it, but the use of Tasmanian timbers identifies its Tassie origins, and the Regency Style design suggests this period. The upholstery shows visible signs of wear with multiple tears adorned by delicate repair stitch work.
Referring to the warp and weft of the upholstery as a starting point I worked with a grid formation of squares imprinted with an open weave gauze. Stamped stitch-like lines highlight the Regency Style scroll and fan design features as well as the repaired patches on the seat which are further emphasised with silver solders. Brass squares signify the sofa’s brass feet. Each square has been cut from sheet metal, rolled as thinly as possible and connected with small rings to create a cloth-like pliable form.
From the exhibition label:
The sofa is one of the most significant design artefacts to have survived from Tasmania’s colonial period. It was acquired in 2005 with funds provided by the Federal Group in an auction sale that attracted significant media attention because of its record-breaking price of over 300,000 dollars. There was and remains much curiosity as to why this tattered and broken remnant of Tasmania’s colonial past is so highly valued.
The Hamilton Inn Sofa is an object made in a style intended to represent the height of European civilisation and taste in its day, partly by referring to the ancient classical past, yet it was made far from Europe during a violent invasion.
images 1: Tracing threads of re-making
image 2: Tracing threads of re-making (detail)
image 3: Vestige installation at TMAG
image 4: Hamilton Inn Sofa after conservation
image 5: Hamilton Inn Sofa before conservation, image courtesy of TMAG
images 6: Tracing threads of re-making (work-in-progress)