Tableware such as cutlery, crystal and crockery are culturally coded. Dining accessories index wealth, social status, civility and notions of refinement whilst contributing to the aesthetic organisation of the dining environment. Placemats, which are seemingly modest, decorative accessory, designate individual place settings and express traditions, collective identities and cultural narratives of hospitality.
Not at the table is deliberately undomesticated. The works on colonial Australiana placemats reject the idea of ‘a seat at the table’ and question what it means to seek place on stolen land. The counter-invitations from Indigenous and racialised artists and writers unsettle white ethnocentric assumptions around belonging, access, and guest-host relations in the colony.
This project was developed with Alice McCool for exhibition at Suite7a, Sydney. The works were created in consultation and collaboration with writers whose generosity in trusting us to reproduce their words has made this project possible. Alice and I extend our sincere thanks to the featured writers: Eileen Chong, Elyas Alavi, Jayda Wilson, Lulu Houdini, Olivia De Zilva, Omar Sakr, Ouyang Yu, Dr Rashida Murphy, Samia Sayed, Winnie Dunn.
This project was developed with Alice McCool for exhibition at Suite7a, Sydney. The works were created on Kaurna Yarta with Alice in collaboration with writers on unceded Indigenous lands throughout this continent. We pay respect to Indigenous custodianship of the land, air waters and acknowledge the rich cultural practices that have thrived here for generations. This project has only been possible through the generosity and collaboration of the featured writers. We extend our sincere thanks to them for trusting us to reproduce their words.