Serving

Serving: (woman), (vessel), (fish), (others), (nation), (size), (time), (notice), (god), 2018. 200x200mm each, variable grid layout. Lasercut palmleaf plates.

Exhibited first in Plate Show 3: the Third Course, ANU Foyer Gallery, Canberra Australia, 24 October – 2 November 2018. Curated by Joanne Searle, Fione Edge and Megan Watson.

Palm-leaf plates are often made by small collectives in India and in other South-east Asian countries, who invest in the machine that presses the plates out of water-soaked palm leaves. Such collectives are usually made up by women and the income they generate helps to sustain whole communities. They are imported by ‘sustainable’ catering businesses and used for public and private functions as disposable plates, although they are surprisingly hardy and could be re-used a few times.

I have used the plates themselves, which vary widely in ‘skin’ tone and markings, to connect the term ‘serving’ with ideas about class, gender, race, nationhood, religion, and fairness. When viewed together they serve as another protest (one of many) against Australia’s offshore detention policy.