Fiona Hall

Fiona Hall is one of Australia’s most well-known and innovative contemporary artists. She grew up in Sydney in a family with a keen sense of enquiry; most significantly her mother was a prestigious scientist and her brother pursued a career in mathematics. Hall’s endeavours as an artist are parallel to that of a scientist; searching for understanding about humanity and the environment.

Hall works across a range of media including painting, photography, sculpture and installation. At times she uses unusual materials such as soap, sardine tins, aluminium cans, video tape, currency and beads. Hall uses these everyday objects to address contemporary issues associated with history, politics, conflict and the environment.

Occupied territory was Hall’s first work about the British colonisation of Australia. The work consists of four native and four introduced plant specimens. The four introduced species are made from red and white beads; fig, pear, acorn and peach, while the four native species angophora, banksia, Norfolk pine and Sydney Wattle are constructed from black beads and nails. The choice of beads and nails refers to the ‘gifts’ offered to Aboriginal people by colonisers including James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks.

  • The nature of contact between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and others, for example, the Macassans and the Europeans, and the effects of these interactions on, for example, people and environments (ACHASSK086)
  • Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to Australia, and their experiences following arrival (ACHASSK085)
  • The impact of the development of British colonies in Australia on the lives of First Nations Australians, the colonists and convicts, and on the natural environment (AC9HS5K02)

The Modern World since 1945

  • Reasons for, and consequences of, other conflicts in the Middle East, for example the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the Iran/Iraq War (1980-1988), Iranian Revolution (1979) and the Gulf Wars I (1990–1991) and II (2003) (ACHMH218)
  • The consequences of the involvement of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union in the Middle East over the period, in both the continuing conflict and the peace process(ACHMH221)
  • The consequences of the movement of peoples in the period 1945 – 2010, for example urban migration and labour migration, and the experiences of groups that moved and the implications for Australia, Great Britain and the British Commonwealth (ACHMH214)

Skills: Problem-solving and decision-making

  • Recognise and consider multiple perspectives and ambiguities, and use strategies to negotiate and resolve contentious issues (ACHCS099)

Skills: Analysis, synthesis and interpretation

  • Critically evaluate information and ideas from a range of sources in relation to civics and citizenship topics and issues (ACHCS097 )
  • Account for different interpretations and points of view (ACHCS098)

Citizenship, diversity and identity

  • How values, including freedom, respect, inclusion, civility, responsibility, compassion, equality and a ‘fair go’, can promote cohesion within Australian society(ACHCK052)
  • How ideas about and experiences of Australian identity are influenced by global connectedness and mobility (ACHCK081)
  • Imagine you and your family arrive unexpectedly in a new country to live. What things would you need to learn?
  • The endemic and introduced plants represented in Occupied territory were grown on the grounds of Governor Phillip’s house in Sydney. Governor Phillip (1788–1792) proposed that Aboriginal people be treated kindly and aimed to establish a harmonious relationship with them. Unfortunately, not all British settlers thought this way. Investigate interactions between Aboriginal people and European settlers at the time of first contact. How did these interactions change over time? What are some of the effects this has had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today? If you could go back in time and change one specific moment in Australian history, what would it be and why?
  • Fiona Hall’s work sometimes explores problems associated with colonisation and how many of these problems remain with us today. Locate other works of art in the Gallery’s collection that explore similar themes. Compare signs and symbols employed in these works of art to those used in Occupied territory.

Science as a human endeavour

Science knowledge helps people to understand the effect of their actions (ACSHE062)

  • Imagine you are labelling the four native plants in Occupied territory. In what region of Australia are these plants usually found? Research plants native to the Adelaide Plains region and their Aboriginal names. Create a display in your classroom.
  • Hall is deeply concerned about the impact humans have had on the environment. Many of Australia’s plant and animal species are now extinct or nearing extinction as a result of colonisation. Investigate an Australian species of flora or fauna that is on the brink of extinction. Discuss ways we could prevent more species from becoming extinct. Write a letter to the Minister for the Environment and Energy outlining your concerns and including a list of recommendations.
  • Consider the role of introduced species, hunting and land clearance.
  • How would modern day Australian food chains compare with those existing before colonisation?
  • Taxonomy is the science of classification. All the plant seeds listed in Occupied territory belong to the plant kingdom but they are grouped into more specific categories at lower classification levels. What features make them all members of the plant kingdom? Find out which family each of the seeds belong to. Why have they been classified in this way?
  • Observation is an important skill in art and in science. Locate other works of art in the Gallery’s collection that depict plants or flowers. Look closely while completing a series of drawings based on your observation. Back in the classroom classify the plants and flowers and research the scientific names for your specimens.

Some of Hall’s earlier works, including Occupied territory, both celebrate wonders of the natural world and explore how distressing it is to see it disappearing before our eyes as a result of human impact. Create a work of art that responds to a current environmental issue using materials and methods that incorporate a sense of beauty.

Download the full Fiona Hall Education resource as a PDF here

All the King’s Men

Fiona Hall, born Sydney 1953, All the King's men, 2014-15, Adelaide, knitted military uniforms, wire, bone, horns, teeth, dice, glass and mixed media; Gift of Candy Bennett and Edwina Lehmann, Dr Peter and Sandra Dobson, David and Pam McKee, Simon Mordant AM and Catriona Mordant, John Phillips, and Tracey and Michael Whiting through the Art Gallery of South Australia Contemporary Collectors through the Fiona Hall Appeal 2015-16, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Courtesy Fiona Hall.

All the King’s Men was the Masterwork in Hall’s 2015 Venice Biennale exhibition Wrong Way Time. Made for the new Australian Pavilion in Venice, this installation includes 20 sculptures. It is an exemplary manifestation of Hall’s maverick powers of material transformation and is the culmination of decades of conceptual and material investigation.

Military uniforms bearing camouflage prints from several countries are shredded and tightly woven by the artist into twenty oversized heads with misshapen knitted bodies suspended from in space. Teeth, bones, horns and found objects adorn the mask-like heads and their ghostly, skeletal bodies. These hollow people of war and conflict represent the many who have fallen and those who are yet to fall in the name of nationhood.

The different camouflage patterns used by Hall reference countries the globe over, from the Asia-Pacific to the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, and conflicts from the Second World War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hall’s use of the varied patterns makes reference to a defiant intermingling and speaks to a camaraderie, despite military formation, cultural, racial or linguistic difference.

  • Where do you think Fiona Hall’s title comes from? Do you know the rest of the rhyme? Why do you think she has chosen the title?
  • List of all of the materials that Hall has used to make All the King’s Men. Construct your own list of unusual materials and select three to design and make a work of art.
  • What types of histories might the viewer bring with them when experiencing Fiona Hall’s All the King’s Men? Discuss how people might respond differently to the same work of art.

Create a work of art inspired by a message or moral in a nursery rhyme.