Between the Silence and the Heartbeat (2023)
MATERIALS Bronze and Wood
LOCATION Travelling Stock reserve (TSR), Lachlan Valley Way, 12km from Condobolin.
Between the Silence and the Heartbeat represents the indifference to Indigenous deaths within ‘white’ Australia; whether it is in police custody, by suicide, the gap in health care or being deliberately targeted.
“Indigenous Australians have been here for over 60,000 years. The heartbeat of the People is the heartbeat of Country. It is time for the silence about these deaths to end; it is time for us all to take a stand” – Clancy Warner.
Based on a wood series made for the 2018 Biennale of Australian Art exhibition, the installation comprises of 15 bronze figures featuring a wooden heart inlay.
The sculpture took almost a year and a half to create. Clancy created silicone moulds from the original series, and then created wax versions from those moulds. This process enabled the texture of the wood grain to be transferred to the bronze. The figures are patinated black. The wooden heart spaces were carved from recycled Oregon, varnished and then inlayed.
About the Sculptor
Clancy Warner (Adelaide, SA)
Clancy Warner was born in Orange, NSW (Wiradjuri Country) and grew up on the Hawkesbury River an hour north of Sydney. She spent most of her young life on rivers and in the bush immersing herself with animals and nature. She spent her mid to later teenage years within the Sydney punk-anarcho scene where she developed many of her ideals. In her 20’s she moved to the States, opened a tattoo studio and spent significant time with the Lakota peoples. She moved back to Australia in 2005.
Since graduating art school in 2013, Clancy has been a full-time, professional, award-winning sculptor. Her art practice strongly reflects her views on the world, including themes with a political or social justice edge as well as representations of animals and nature. She uses sustainable and re-claimed materials as often as possible to help reduce the impact on the environment and support her personal ethic of reflecting the interconnectedness of all things.