Fiona Hall's exhibition comprises the first showing in Sydney of two major recent works: Leaf Litter and Cell Culture. Leaf Litter is an ongoing series of two hundred gouache paintings of botanically-specific leaves on foreign paper currency. Cell Culture is a collection of animals and plants constructed out of clear glass beads and white Tupperware containers, all housed within a large museological display case.
Exhibition Dates: 24 October – 16 November 2002
Fiona Hall's current exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery comprises the first showing in Sydney of two major recent works: Leaf Litter and Cell Culture. Leaf Litter, first exhibited in part in the National Gallery of Australia's Federation exhibition in 2001, is an ongoing series of two hundred gouache paintings of botanically-specific leaves on foreign paper currency. Hall has said of Leaf Litter: "Money doesn't grow on trees—or does it? Plants have played a crucial role in the history of colonisation and the development of world economies. Many species have been responsible for the rapid growth of European power and wealth over the past five hundred years. Plants, and along with them people, have been shifted across oceans, battles have been waged over them, forests razed. But everything comes at a price, and now we are paying heavily for over-taxing the environment and for cultivating an ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations. Many of the once most plant resource-rich countries are now amongst the poorest on earth. Leaf Litter aligns the distribution of plant species with the distribution of monetary wealth."
Cell Culture is a collection of animals and plants constructed out of clear glass beads and white Tupperware containers, all housed within a large museological display case. Again, here, Hall has conflated two different economies, two different systems of trade, socialisation and exchange by subjecting them to the neutralising force of science: collection of specimens, systematic classification, objective display. The wondrous complexity of biological diversity is frozen like a display of precious diamonds rendered curiously sterile in an institutional context.
Cell Culture was produced for the 2002 Adelaide Bienniale and has recently been purchased by the Art Gallery of South Australia. Leaf Litter was produced by Hall largely in Lunaganga, Sri Lanka where she stayed, with the aid of an Asialink residency, at the country home of architect Geoffrey Bawa. In 1997 Hall was the recipient of the inaugural Contempora 5 art award and in 1999, the Clemenger Art Award. Her work is held in every major public collection in Australia. She works across a broad range of media: painting, photography, sculpture, installation. A major retrospective of her work is currently being planned by the Queensland Art Gallery for early 2004. Leaf Litter & Cell Culture will be her 5th solo exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Fiona Hall Zero or Nothing
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2024
Group Show, What Does the Jukebox Dream Of?
Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2024
Group Show, The First 40 Years
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2024
Group Show, The Winter Bride
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2023
Fiona Hall Exodust - Crying Country
Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Tasmania, 2022
Fiona Hall Afraid Cascade
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2020
Group Show, Caught Stealing
National Art School, Sydney, 2019
Fiona Hall The Hall of Service
Anzac Memorial, Sydney, 2019
Group Show, State of Play
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2017
Fiona Hall Fiona Hall: Uneasy Seasons
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2017
Fiona Hall Gateless Gate
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2017
Group Show, Creative Accounting
University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2016-17
Group Show, Sappers and Shrapnel
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2016-17
Group Show, The Nest
Katonah Museum of Art, New York, 2016
Fiona Hall Wrong Way Time
56th Venice Biennale, 2015
Whisper in My Mask
TarraWarra Biennial, 2014
Fiona Hall Veneer
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2014
Fiona Hall Dark Heart
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2014
Fiona Hall Big Game Hunting
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2013
Fiona Hall Shot Through
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2011
Group Show, Head On Photography Festival
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2011
Group Show, True Story
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2010-11
Group Show, Lucky Town
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2008-09
Group Show, STOLEN RITUAL
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2006-07
Fiona Hall
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2005
Group Show
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2005
Fiona Hall The Art of Fiona Hall
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2005
Fiona Hall Cell Culture & Leaf Litter
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2002
Group Show, Dirty Dozen
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2002
Group Show, The First 20 Years
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2002
Fiona Hall A folly for Mrs Macquarie
Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, 2001
Group Show, All Stars
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2000
Fiona Hall Fieldwork
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1999
Group Show, Every other day
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1998
Fiona Hall Global Liquidity (with Nalini Malani)
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1998
Fiona Hall Fern Garden
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1997
Fiona Hall Slash and Burn
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1997
Group Show
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1997
Fiona Hall Lana H. Foil: Call of Nature
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1997
Group Show, Give A Dog A Bone
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1996
Fiona Hall The Price is Right
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1995
Fiona Hall WORDS
Online Gallery, 1990