By Biennale of Sydney
23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
About the participant
Established 1990 in London, England
Heather Ackroyd
Born 1959 in Huddersfield, England
Lives in Surrey, England and Veneto, Italy
Dan Harvey
Born 1959 in Dorking, England
Lives in Surrey, England and Veneto, Italy
Ackroyd & Harvey create multi-disciplinary works that intersect art, activism, biology, ecology and history. Referencing memory and time, their time-based practice reveals an intrinsic bias towards process and event.
‘Through the life force of living plant material and the production of the green pigment chlorophyll, our photographs exist.’
— Ackroyd & Harvey
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
Processes of germination, growth and decay (organic and inorganic), feature in artworks that often evolve through extended research in response to people and place, interfacing their interest in local ecologies and global environmental concerns.
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
In 2019, Ackroyd & Harvey co-founded Culture Declares Emergency in response to the climate and ecological emergency.
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
Responding to ‘place’ is integral to how Ackroyd & Harvey develop ideas and their work is often created for the venue, considered within the context of the curatorial vision, the architecture of the space and the influence of the environment.
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022)Biennale of Sydney
Uncle Charles ‘Chicka’ Madden
For rīvus, the artists worked with Uncle Charles ‘Chicka’ Madden, a widely respected Gadigal Elder...
Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
Lille Madden
... and his grand-daughter Lille Madden, First Nations director at Groundswell and activist with SeedMob to make the photographic content.
Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (detail) (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
Seedling Grass
In the photography of Ackroyd & Harvey, notions of passage of time and transience are evoked through the use of a living plant material – seedling grass.
Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
The artists use grass grown from seed on vertical surfaces as a living photographic medium, which they term ‘photographic photosynthesis’.
Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (detail) (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
In a darkroom setting using projected light through a negative image, the emergent blade of grass has an extraordinary capacity to record complex photographic images through the production of chlorophyll.
Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (detail) (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
In a sense, Ackroyd & Harvey have adapted the photographic art of producing pictures on sensitive film to the light sensitivity of young grass and the equivalent tonal range developed in black & white photographic paper is created within the grass in shades of yellow and green.
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
Each germinating blade of grass produces a concentration of chlorophyll pigment that relates to the amount of projected light available to it and the strength of green produced is according to the intensity of light received.
The grass still grows without light, the bright yellow colour being conferred by light-independent pigments.
Uncle Charles 'Chicka' Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney (2022) by Ackroyd & HarveyBiennale of Sydney
To ensure the stability and visibility of the image during exhibition, the grass is dried. Due to natural UV bleaching by light, the images gradually fade over time.
Compare the artworks, side by side, over time...
At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Ackroyd & Harvey presented another set of portraits of Uncle Charles ‘Chicka’ Madden and Lille Madden. Statuesque and framed against a stormy sky, their figures are shown on a monumental scale at 5 metres high. The photographs which form the basis for these works were taken under the Sydney Harbour Bridge at Tar-Ra (Dawes Point), a significant site in the history of Gadigal language.
Tap to explore
Navigate through The Cutaway and explore the artworks — captured towards the end of the exhibition when the image has faded due to natural UV bleaching by light.
