James Tylor: Turrangka...in the shadows

Researching cultural practices, tools and technology

• Explore James Tylor’s Un-resettling project focusing on the re-learning and practicing of Kaurna cultural practices. Create a photo essay documenting the use of a traditional tool, and/or technique, related to your identity (Family history or personal interest). Annotate the images and provide a concluding statement that compares the traditional method with today’s technology identifying the pros and cons of each variation. Watch UNSW video '
  Australian Artists Working with Photography - James Tylor'
• Investigate the documentation, preservation, removal, and retrieval of First Nations cultural items and tools. Tip: Watch or listen to What the British Stole: Gweagal Shield

Through the window

• It has often been said that ‘A picture tells a thousand words’, but whose words? Consider the missing parts from the pictures James Tylor has made on Country where black geometric shapes reference the conscious erasure of historical content. Use these shapes as windows to the past and look deeper to fill in the blanks. Create a handheld view finder to look around your own environment. How does the context of your view differ depending on how, or where, you position the frame? Discuss.

As a multi-disciplinary artist James Tylor’s practice is diverse and layered, though photography and image making has been central to his practice since completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Photography) at the South Australian School of Art, 2011.

Explore different ways that you can make a photograph using both analogue and digital technologies:

• Take a look at our Photography Resource, in particular the camera-less photograph.
• Watch What is Daguerreotype?
• Watch NGA Video: James Tylor Interview - Ceremony: 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial
• Make a pinhole camera and use it to create an image. Compare the image-making process and the final photograph with those produced using a digital camera. When comparing, consider image quality (e.g. texture, clarity, and sense of place) as well as the user experience, including the time required to create the image and the level of thought given to composition.
• Create sun-prints. Explore an alternative light-based image-making process by creating sun prints using either cyanotype paper or a turmeric-based printing method. You can use pre-prepared cyanotype sheets available from art and craft suppliers or prepare your own light-sensitive printing surface using a turmeric solution.

Turmeric Sun Prints (Anthotypes)

Create a photographic image using sunlight and a natural, light-sensitive dye made from turmeric. This process, known as an anthotype, uses the bleaching effect of sunlight to produce an image without a camera or traditional photographic chemicals.

Materials

• Thick watercolour paper or cartridge paper
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 4–6 teaspoons methylated spirits or isopropyl alcohol (teacher supplied)
• Coffee filter or paper towel
• Soft paintbrush or foam brush
• Leaves, flowers, lace, feathers, or paper cut-outs, images printed on transparent film
• Glass or a clear acrylic sheet
• Masking tape or clips
• Sunny outdoor location

Developer

• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 120 mL warm water
• Spray bottle or soft brush

Method

1. Prepare the light-sensitive solution

Mix the turmeric with the methylated spirits until well combined. Filter the mixture through a coffee filter or paper towel to remove any particles.

2. Coat the paper

Brush an even layer of the filtered turmeric solution onto the paper. Allow it to dry in dark space, completely away from direct sunlight.

3. Arrange your composition

Place objects such as leaves, flowers or paper shapes onto the coated paper. Cover with a sheet of glass or clear acrylic to keep everything flat and prevent movement.

4. Expose to sunlight

Place the print in direct sunlight for 2–6 hours, depending on the strength of the sun. The exposed areas will gradually fade while the covered areas remain darker.

5. Develop the image

Carefully remove the objects. Lightly spray or brush the bicarbonate of soda solution over the paper. The remaining turmeric will deepen to a warm orange-red, making the image more visible.

6. Dry and preserve

Allow the print to dry completely. Anthotypes continue to fade if exposed to light, so photograph or scan your finished work and store the original in a dark folder or portfolio.

Tips for Success

• Choose objects with interesting shapes and clear edges.
• Keep objects as flat as possible for sharper images.
• Bright, direct sunlight produces the strongest results.
• Avoid touching the coated paper before exposure.
• Experiment with overlapping objects to create layered compositions.

Safety

• Methylated spirits and isopropyl alcohol are flammable and should only be handled under teacher supervision.
• Wear an apron or old clothing, as turmeric can permanently stain fabrics and porous surfaces.
• Wash hands after completing the activity.

Shadow boards: Tools

Design and create a shadow board that represents cultural tools and objects from different backgrounds. Using Design and Technology skills, laser cut or hand cut templates of tools and objects that may be colonial, Kaurna, or connected to students own personal and family heritage. If working in Visual Arts, the completed shadow board can be assembled using black card, or students may create silhouettes with paint.

Creative Writing: Cautionary Tales

Explore how stories, including First Nations cautionary tales, have traditionally been used to share knowledge, teach safe practices, and guide behaviour across generations. Using visual prompts such as James Tylor's photographs, old family photographs, or found images, students create their own cautionary tale through creative writing and visual literacy activities. Inspired by the way characters or creatures are sometimes hidden within illustrations in children's books, carefully observe images for details, shadows, and implied narratives. Then develop stories that communicate an important message about safety, responsibility, respect for place, or community values.

*Example - Using children's picture books such as Hattie and the Fox, by Mem Fox, where a fox gradually emerges within the illustrations as a hidden danger, students learn to look closely for clues, symbols, and stories hinted at within images.

Connection to place

Hopes, Dreams and Nightmares #3, 2013 of a lone karrawirra (river red gum) in a cleared field represents one of Tylor's first works made using the daguerreotypes. These daguerreotypes document the scant surviving trees that predate colonial settlers' impact on the Australian landscape, their lonely boughs dotting the otherwise empty vistas of farming lands in South Australia and Victoria. For Tylor, these trees hold and occupy space on an otherwise stripped pasture and are symbolic markers of sites of loss

• Draw or write about a place that is important to you. Imagine how it would feel if that place changed so much that only one familiar feature remained. What story might that feature tell about the past?

Illuminate your school

Install your lights to create an immersive exhibition experience. Record readings of your stories and poems responding to Tylor’s work and play the audio within the light space

Shadow Board Challenge

Display tool shadow boards and invite audience members to suggest a name and use for each of the tools represented.

Storytime

Share your stories around the campfire. Set up a sharing circle with a warming light in the centre. Dim other lights and read your stories out loud.

Two truths and a lie

Play a classic game of two truths and a lie with an Australian history spin. Research and present two true facts about the settlement of Australia and one myth. See if classmates can identify the lie and create a wall of True vs False, or Did you know? information in the classroom or library.

Student Photography Exhibition

Curate and host an exhibition of photographs created in response to Tylor's work, exploring themes of identity, culture, place, and storytelling. Present images with titles and artist statements, sharing ideas and creative processes with peers, families, and the wider community

Research and explore other contemporary artists contributing to truth-telling through their practice. Consider the responsibility of non-First Nation’s people to play their part in this conversation. Ben Quilty, for example, has produced significant bodies of work in response to this topic.

• Set up paper, canvas, or drawing board outdoors where an interesting shadow falls across the drawing surface.
• Carefully trace the shape of the shadow, observing how it changes and moves over time as the sun shifts.
• Experiment with different drawing media, including pencil, charcoal, ink, or paint, and consider how each medium affects the quality of the marks they make. You can also make creative decisions about how to respond to the shadow, choosing whether to simply trace its outline or to fill and develop either the positive shapes (the objects casting the shadow) or the negative shapes (the shadowed areas). This encourages exploration of tone, composition, and the relationship between light and shadow.
• Initially, work with naturally occurring shadows found in the environment. As your confidence grows progress to arranging and staging your own compositions, deliberately positioning objects to create more complex, interesting, or expressive shadow forms to investigate and record.

• Photograph interesting shadows observed in the everyday environment, both indoors and outdoors. These might include shadows cast by plants, architectural features, playground equipment, or sunlight filtering through windows and doors at particular times of day.
• Look closely at how light creates unexpected shapes, patterns, and contrasts.
• By documenting these fleeting moments you will develop observational skills and build a collection of visual references that can later be used as inspiration for drawing, painting, printmaking, or photographic projects.
• Take it further: Revisit the same location at different times of day to watch and record how changing light conditions alter the size, shape, and intensity of shadows.

• Transform shadow drawings into cylindrical lanterns or lamp forms by recreating traced images on translucent paper, such as tracing paper, rice paper, baking paper, or other lightweight materials that allow light to pass through.
• Carefully roll the paper into a cylinder and secure it to create a freestanding lantern shape.
• When illuminated from within using a safe LED light source, the drawings become projected shadows, casting enlarged shapes and patterns onto surrounding walls and surfaces. Experiment with the placement, scale, and density of marks to investigate how line, shape, and tone affect the projected image.
• Take it further: Combine multiple shadow drawings around the cylinder or construct more complex lantern forms to create layered and immersive shadow environments.

In this work Tylor, and Selleck, feature precious brass versions of edible species of fish and plants native to Kaurna Country, perched on a colonial style butchers block awaiting their fate. An example of how culture was unapologetically disrupted, during colonialisation.

Increase your knowledge of Kaurna plants on a cultural tour through the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Hear from First Nations guides to discover traditions and connections that have sustained Kaurna communities for generations.

What grows in your area? Perhaps you could plant some native plants in your home, school, or community garden.