Scrutineers

Re-presenting the overlooked is important in my work. I’m interested to see if the simple act of presenting something cast-off can be restorative.(1)

Louise Haselton

Adelaide-based artist Louise Haselton travelled to the remote state of Nagaland, in the northeast of India, in 2009. She was drawn to the craftwork of its tribes, in particular to the Angami, whose textiles, headgear, weapons and utensils she had seen in the National Museum in Delhi on several trips to India in the previous decade.(2) Haselton was struck by the intensity of the objects, which were heavily decorated and often used for protection. She became interested in the ongoing practice in animism by the Angami and other Naga peoples, animism being a belief that not only humans, but also animals, plants, rocks, and natural phenomena possess a spirit or soul.

Haselton’s practice encompasses sculpture and installation, whereby the artist brings together unlikely, natural and fabricated materials into considered arrangements, these often possessing a wry humour. Her working method includes extended time in her studio contemplating the different materials she has scavenged or found, in a process akin to becoming acquainted with these objects. The principle of balance is central to her enquiry, with materials of different weight and qualities assembled to achieve harmony.

Scrutineers, 2011, emerged from Haselton’s research in Nagaland, specifically, the way in which certain objects – such as a tree or rock – were attributed with spiritual significance by its inhabitants.

She observed:

Rocks had been, and were continuing to be, covered in silver leaf, paper, thread; trees were wrapped totally in woollen or cotton thread. The underlying object was often not visible at all, but wholly smothered by the covering material.(3)

Haselton’s Scrutineers comprises a constellation of twelve decorated rocks, balanced on brass pots. Embellished with mirror circles, the rocks sit on their pedestals as though they form an extended family or social group. Oriented towards each other, their physical presence evokes a lively conversation, the rocks ‘dressed’ in their finest.

1. Extracting response: Michael Newall in conversation with Louise Haselton’, in Errand Workshop, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide, 2011, p. 22.

2. https://garlandmag.com/article/learning-from-nagaland/ accessed 14 May 2021.

3. Extracting response, pp. 20–1.

Maria Zagala, Associate Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs