Edge Effect

Led by contemporary First Nations artist and jeweller, Melissa Stannard, Edge Effect is a collaborative project that invited people from a diversity of backgrounds across the community to contribute an object that represents them and their connection to this place we share. Titled after an ecological phenomenon, edge effects are changes in population or community structures that occur at the boundary of two or more habitats.

Harnessing the power of the sun, participants worked together to create a collaborative cyanotype print – a photographic process which forms a silhouette effect from objects placed on a light sensitive surface. The project has seen the fabrication of a series of sails that adorn and extend the surfaces of the Floating Land Pavilion at Boreen Point – a hub for activities at this year’s Biennale. The stories behind a selection of the objects contributed to this project can be found on the Floating Land website as a series of interviews with participants.

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Melissa Stannard is a Yuwaaalaraay, Gamilaraay and Koama woman whose art, identity and culture are interwoven. Stannard works with the Indigenous spiritual practise of Winangali and Dadirri – or deep listening – while exploring her environment; from wadhi, yurrul (bush), gumbugan (sand/sandhill), to gaawal (creek or lake). She is inspired by the environment wherever she goes, with a particular interest in the overlooked ‘life in the undergrowth’ – those macro and microcosms of wonder at our feet. A graduate of Griffith University with a Bachelors degree in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art, Stannard is a Kungullanji graduate scholar and mentor, with a passion for helping and connecting community to the healing practises of art.

This project was realised with the assistance of Sarndra Hetzel.

@melissa.stannard.artist

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