City of Trees (2013)
The National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia
In 2010 Bradley was invited to Canberra, Australia with a view to creating a new project for the city’s centenary in 2013. This major exhibition at the National Library of Australia (designed by Bradley working with the National Library’s designer Isobel Trundle and London-based architect Deborah Nagan) showed the work she made over the course of those three years, all of which explored the identity of Canberra through its remarkable tree-scapes and those people for whom the city’s trees played a large role in their lives. Bradley was the only international artist commissioned to help mark this civic milestone.
Forming the centrepiece of the exhibition was a group of ‘sound portals’: architectural forms fabricated by Canberra-based firm Thylaine that were designed for listening to an individual audio work. Reflecting the library outside the exhibition space, references to printing and works on paper, card and cardboard ran through the exhibition, as did references to light: the key to all green growth.
Click here for exhibition essay by Michael Desmond
Click here for essay on City of Trees by Sarah Jayne Parsons
Film on the making of City of Trees by Rob Nugent
Constituent works:
Light Portals – lightbox diptych
Tree 20– audio work
Conversation with Trees after Fire– audio work
Amongst the Oaks– audio work
Architecture Makes Form; Trees Create Space – suite of 25 drawings on vintage herbarium paper
Scatterproof (Canberra) – suite of 12 photographic prints on Hahnemule paper