Introduction

D.134 Xanthorrhoea arborea is a commitment to the poly-vocal (artwork). Sights where artists cite the voices and perspectives of others, expanding audibility, (visibility) and critical agency to include them.  D.134 Xanthorrhoea arborea is an account of making (art) through building and activating new, progressive communities. The Sydney Football Stadium was erected on Bidjigal/Gadigal Country and D.134 Xanthorrhoea arborea – a spatial arrangement of the ‘Gadi’ or grass tree testifies to this.  Rows of Xanthorrhoea are (emblematically) detailed in white lines of varying thickness, echoing the markers used to delineate areas of play on sporting fields.  These are arrayed across panels of alternating opaque and translucent landscape (imagery), proxies for the porous and non-porous strata of memory – individual and collective.

I have tried to develop a (creative) language shaped by a local knowledge and lived experience.  Particularly mine, as a queer man growing up in a time (and place) when enacting myself was criminalised.  I resist reflecting the (generalised) stereotypes projected upon queer people, these usually ‘other’ us by way of contrast (only).  Performing what a straight world thinks makes queer folk distinct (simply) replicates older prejudices; recentring and perpetuating existing hierarchies of power.  For me, sharing and enabling (others) can be a queer mode of practice. One (well) suited to contesting capitalist orthodoxies and the elevation of straight (male) histories in public life.  D.134 Xanthorrhoea arborea visualises sharing as a forum for colluding with architect Renjie Teoh in schematising this windscreen (substrate) as a gathering place.  A communal space in which the stories of a (diverse) group of new friends could be synergised.  Kin previously unknown to us, who were identified through a (prolonged) conversation with artist and curator Tess Allas.

Composed of (multiple) stands of ‘Gadi’, a Gadigal word denominating the Xanthorrhoea cleaved by three transparent sections of plexiglass to which are affixed 21 (large scale) Xanthorrhoea florets.  Each acting as an elegant (aestheticised) frame for a (loaded) QR code. These link to video, spoken word, text and image contributions from the Hon. Dr Meredith Burgmann AM, Aunty Barbara McGrady, the Department of Homo Affairs presenting as DOHA and Daniel Browning.  In addition, there are artefacts from the collection of the Sydney Cricket Ground Museum (generously) shared with us and you by Phillip Heads.  This material and (much) more that we were unable to incorporate was developed through the dialogue with Tess Allas that began and concludes as a series of (redacted) virtual encounters. Subsequently produced and ordered by Renjie Teoh for online viewership in which each element of (original) content is linked to a corresponding QR-coded floret.   Renjie and I installed these by hand, and we want to thank Louise Haran, Senior Project Officer at Infrastructure NSW who enabled us in in this (profoundly) manualised task.

Yarning with Tess identified histories and narratives (deeply) entangled with the Moore Park precinct recounted by spectators, photographers and activists – (commonly) under-represented players in the (commemorative) processes of sport and the grounds on which they are played.  Those who watch and document matches and who access the playing field to demonstrate and disrupt are (also) essential to the history of sport and its sites.  Their stories are as consequent as those already (abundantly) documented and populating the Moore Park precinct. D.134 Xanthorrhoea arborea’s intention is to fill in some of the gaps in how (momentous) events are recorded, by whom and for what purpose. 

Renjie and I have used the experience of talking with Tess and those introduced to us by her, to confabulate and participate in a blended community.  We feel (greatly) privileged to have had the opportunity to wag their tales alongside our own.  The participation of Meredith, Aunty Barbara, DOHA and Daniel Browning helped Renjie, Tess and I give D.134 Xanthorrhoea arborea a direct and meaningful relationship to the pluralistic and inclusive aspirations that sport (increasingly) aspires to embody.