Madung. Alive.
Artist: M. Sunflower
This work is part of my Rhizome series – an affirmation to transmute current traumas into future regeneration. Though the word rhizome is derived from a Greek word meaning “to take root”, the rhizome is not about the common tree structure whose branches have all grown from a single trunk.
Rhizome subverts such traditional hierarchies.
Rhizome offers liberation from these structures of power and dominance.
Rhizome has no beginning, no centre and no end.
Rhizome can be entered from any point, and all points are connected.
When injured or broken at one site, rhizome simply forms a new connection that emerges elsewhere.
Rhizome is not about what is or what was, but about what might be.
To quote Deleuze and Guattari: “The surface can be interrupted and moved, but these disturbances leave no trace, as the water is charged with pressure and potential to always seek its equilibrium, and thereby establish smooth space.”
M. Sunflower
M. Sunflower is a culturally diverse Australian artist with disabilities. A descendant of the Dharug Nation, Lebanese post-war immigrants, Chinese gold-rush migrants and a UK convict, she embodies the diverse ancestral legacy of Australia’s painful and complex colonial past. She is a Co-Director on the Board at Firstdraft and won the Georges River Council Art Prize 2022. Art is her activism.
This artwork’s creator, descended from the Dharug Nation, Lebanese immigrants, Chinese migrants and a UK convict, mirrors the diverse cultural history of this place. The Dharug culture, decimated here by colonial settlement, has been progressively overlaid with myriad immigrant cultures. Chinese labourers, miners and market gardeners from the 1860s; southern and eastern Europeans post-WW2; middle-eastern and south Asian influences into the 21st century have all left their mark on our multicultural society.
First Nations Audio Narrative: With thanks to our Indigenous Cultural Advisors, Aunty Jo Selfe and Uncle Graham Toomey, and special contributors who have generously shared important stories of place. Listen to the First Nations Audio Narrative here.
Charity Auction
Love Whale Tales? Want to keep one?
You can! After the Waterfront Whale Tales trail concludes, all 30 sculptures will be offered for purchase at a dedicated art auction at Sydney Maritime Museum, Terrace Room.
The net proceeds from the auction will go to The Kids’ Cancer Project.
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