BONE LIBRARY Sarah-Jane Norman
An evolving work by indigenous Australian performance and installation artist Sarah-Jane Norman, bone library considers the living essence of so-called “dead” languages.
For 3 days, the artist will inhabit a room in the Think Tank where she will set about the task of hand-engraving a complete dictionary of the languages of the Gadigal and Cammeraygal people, the lost pre- Colonial languages of the Sydney region, onto the prepared bones of sheep and beef cattle. The bones of these totemic beasts of European pastoralism are repurposed as vessels of tactile “memorial”, forming the basis of a layered and haunting reflection on the tension between western taxonomy and its modes of preservation, and the more visceral terrain of cultural grief.
As the culmination of Bone Library, artist Sarah-Jane Norman invites you to a special ceremony. Following the live inscription of bones across SPILL Festival, the artist invites audiences to become temporary private trustees of the collection – individual bones will be relinquished into the temporary care of individual audience members, who agree to hold them until such time as the complete collection is recalled. This will take place in the context of a handover ceremony, conducted with the blessing of community Elders.
Text: SPILL website Photo: Heidrun Lohr