The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

JOAN GROUNDS Fundamentally, these recent works by Joan Grounds interrogate human responsibility for the environmental degradation of the planet. Writing about this work, Joan Grounds commented on the penitential aspect of the hirsute bark, like the rough hair cloaks traditionally worn by European saints, and depicted in Donatello's remarkable carving of St Mary Magdalene as an infinitely sorrowful old woman. 7 Multiple feminine personae are crucial to Grounds's imagery. She here invokes the Magdalene, the Virgin, and the ancient pre-Hispanic mother goddess of Guadalupe, who only after the arrival of the conquistadors in Mexico assumed a Christian mantle; and perhaps, by extension, other mother-protector cults. The Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron protector of the American continent, is traditionally represented set into a vulva! cave - equally birth canal, refuge and shrine. Significantly, she is always represented as black, and her powers are certainly those of darkness. This (multivalent and ambivalent) consideration of the powers attributed to mythic feminine personae is grounded in feminist philosophies of the social and spiritual roles of women, and in ideas about individual responsibility for challenges to abuses of power. Grounds's long residence in Sydney, with its enduring traditions of neo-anarchist feminist philosophies and political practice, has clearly influenced her thinking. Her work has also, in part, and not without criticism, participated in the manifestations of Western feminist eco-politics. 8 This environmental theme took fresh impetus from Grounds's experiences in Asia from the late 1980s onwards, when she commenced a series of residencies and exhibitions in Thailand, India and Japan . Meeting the late Montien Boonma in Thailand in 1989 opened Grounds's engagement with Thai artists. Montien's radical reconfiguration of Thai vernacular materials and traditions was first shown in the 1990 Biennale of Sydney, and his work was important in Grounds's long and fruitful participation in the Thai art world as an artist and a teacher. Her continuing working relationships with artists, curators and activists in Thailand and India have been crucial for recent work. She has carried materials, images and ideas - Australian, Japanese, Thai or Indian - between the countries where she has worked. In 1996 she wrote about preparations for a project in India: 'I plan to leave Sydney with my suitcase empty of work made in a place called "here" for a place called "there" . I gather small fragments ... I sift through this associative potential then pack it away in the suitcase.' 9 From Thai artists, who have worked extensively with environmental activists over two decades, Grounds learned of the rapid destruction of animal and plant species in Asia (an issue which had previously engaged her in Australia) .'° Forty-two books with one page 1995 was directly inspired by working with the Thai Wildlife Fu nd in the early 1990s, and refers to the forty-two species of birds identified as endangered in Thailand at that time. Grounds wrote: 'Before it is too late, let's speak well for our friends, the mute species of the world, just as we hope that they would speak for us.' 11 Each saa paper volume in Forty-two books with one page is thus a book of the knowledge - genetic, ecological, historical, symbolic - that each species embodies. These books may no longer be read, and the pages are left unturned, shot through with pain and regret. Top: Forty-two books with one page (detail) 1995 Below: Untitled (detail) 1995 Gold locket, silver chain, seed pearl, monk's string Dimensions variable Collection: The artist Photograph: Pacchi Dang I return one final time to Joan Grounds's repertoire of images, with a fresh point to make. Forty-two books with one page is installed in an oval configuration, in the shape of an eye, or a lens, or possibly even a 'third eye'. (It is the same shape as the locket, turned through 180 degrees.)The eye/lens signifies looking, or in this context the necessity to be vigilant. For the intense scrutiny that Joan Grounds demands is more than simple attentiveness. It is nothing less than an ethical looking from each viewer, who is invited to take responsibility not only for her own understanding, but for her actions as part of the social whole. Julie Ewington is Head of Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery. 53