SUE PEDLEY
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Installations 1990-2000
    • Quarrying Memory 2000
    • The Convict and the Jew 1999
    • Spinifex 1999
    • Drawing on Rock 1998
    • Listening to Clara, Ethel and Ada 1997
    • Under the Pier 1996
    • Humidity 1995
    • The Intertidal Zone 1991
    • Combing 1990
    • The Element Orange 1990
  • Installations 2001-2020
    • Manly Dam Project, Manly Art Gallery and Museum 2019
    • Patches of Light - Tasmania 2019
    • Tracing Water - Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2018
    • Rolling Musical Screech - Bankstown Art Centre - 2017
    • Orange-Net-Work 2017
    • Patches of Light - SCA Gallery 2015
    • Birch Bridge - Norway - 2014
    • Home Garden 2012
    • Copper Ships - Tin Sheds Gallery 2011
    • Harmonica - Setouchi Art Triennial - Japan 2010
    • Blue Jay Way 2007
    • Spare Room 2007
    • Haze - Echigo Tsumari Triennial - Japan - 2006
    • In Tray 2006
    • Sound of Bamboo 2003
    • Sound of Bamboo 2002
    • Sound of Lotus 2001
  • Works on paper
    • Sonic Pressure 2020
    • Orange-Net-Work 2017
    • Lacuna 2017
    • Blueprint 2016
    • Patches of Light - water colours - 2015
    • Sound Lines - drawings- 2014
    • Harvest - monoprints - 2012
    • Monoprints - 2012
    • Sounding - collages - 2011
    • cyanotypes - Porifera Portraits - 2005
    • Cyanotypes 2000 - 2007
    • Humidity - drawings - 1995
    • Rolling Musical Screech-cyanotypes
  • Essays
    • Anne Finnegan
    • Jacqueline Millner
  • Contact

 Otolith: in the ear of the fish - Sue Pedley - Manly Dam Project
Manly Art Gallery and Museum
 6 December 2019 - 23 February 2020
Artists:  Shoofly Derz, Blak Douglas, Nigel Helyer, David Middlebrow, Sue Pedley, Melissa Smith, Cathe Stack, Nicole Welch​
Participating Engineers: Ian Coghlan, Chris Drummond, Francois Flocard, Mitchell Harley,  Alice Harrison, Tino Heimhuber, Gabriella Lumiatti, Ben Modra
Curators: Katherine Roberts & Ian Turner

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Otolith: in the ear of the fish. photo by Karen Watson
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Otolith: in the ear of the fish

In articulating the situations of water, we shape the relations between our watery selves and our watery others.


Otolith: in the ear of the fish
 is a series of speculative and allusive drawings in ink and soot that map the unseen adaptions and changes over time of the Climbing Galaxias (Galaxias brevipinnis), a nativesh inhabiting the waterways of the Manly Dam and its surrounding reserve. Ecologists been able to trace the migratory patterns of this sh and learn aboutits growth, age and life history through decodingtheir otoliths - the calci ed kidney-shaped ringed structures inside the sh’s head that lay down a pairof translucent and opaque bands every day.

An ancient sh, the Climbing Galaxias existed before the splitting up of Gondwana between 60 and 120million years ago. It is believed to be the speciesfrom which other native galaxias evolved and is the only remaining galaxias inhabiting the Sydney area.In past times, it migrated between the sea and freshwater, the suction of its strong pectoral ns allowingit to climb heights of 10 metres or more.
When Curl Curl Creek was dammed in 1892 tocreate Manly Dam, the Galaxias became landlocked.Since then it has adapted to spawning in the dam.The juvenile sh retreat upstream to Curl Curl Creekto escape predators such as perch and carp.
In the drawings that comprise Otolith the body partsof the Climbing Galaxias are layered and fused with elements of scienti c imagery, engineering plans for the Dam and snatches of text. This new narrativeincorporates marks made with materials from thedam itself - water, wood, sedges and casuarinas.
The research for this project evolved through swimming in the dam, walks and conversations
with friends on tracks surrounding the dam, and communication with engineers at the Water Research Laboratory, dedicated local activists, archivists, rangers, scientists and ecologists from Australia and New Zealand.

Reference: Thinking Water by Cecilia Chen,Janine Macleod, and Astrida Neimanis. McGill-Queen’s University Press; Montreal, 1 edition (October 10, 2013)
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Otolith: in the ear of the fish - detail
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Opening night photo by Karen Watson
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Installations 1990-2000
    • Quarrying Memory 2000
    • The Convict and the Jew 1999
    • Spinifex 1999
    • Drawing on Rock 1998
    • Listening to Clara, Ethel and Ada 1997
    • Under the Pier 1996
    • Humidity 1995
    • The Intertidal Zone 1991
    • Combing 1990
    • The Element Orange 1990
  • Installations 2001-2020
    • Manly Dam Project, Manly Art Gallery and Museum 2019
    • Patches of Light - Tasmania 2019
    • Tracing Water - Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2018
    • Rolling Musical Screech - Bankstown Art Centre - 2017
    • Orange-Net-Work 2017
    • Patches of Light - SCA Gallery 2015
    • Birch Bridge - Norway - 2014
    • Home Garden 2012
    • Copper Ships - Tin Sheds Gallery 2011
    • Harmonica - Setouchi Art Triennial - Japan 2010
    • Blue Jay Way 2007
    • Spare Room 2007
    • Haze - Echigo Tsumari Triennial - Japan - 2006
    • In Tray 2006
    • Sound of Bamboo 2003
    • Sound of Bamboo 2002
    • Sound of Lotus 2001
  • Works on paper
    • Sonic Pressure 2020
    • Orange-Net-Work 2017
    • Lacuna 2017
    • Blueprint 2016
    • Patches of Light - water colours - 2015
    • Sound Lines - drawings- 2014
    • Harvest - monoprints - 2012
    • Monoprints - 2012
    • Sounding - collages - 2011
    • cyanotypes - Porifera Portraits - 2005
    • Cyanotypes 2000 - 2007
    • Humidity - drawings - 1995
    • Rolling Musical Screech-cyanotypes
  • Essays
    • Anne Finnegan
    • Jacqueline Millner
  • Contact