the breadfruit tree projectchris fox

Chris Fox produces curious architectures and forms that reference complex topographies mapped by modern conditioning. His installations and sculptures are ironic symbols of the cultural haze or delirium we find ourselves in, a state that is an offset to the endless and infinite choices that we face each day. While choice is perceived as a luxury, a privilege and freedom espoused to notions of democracy and the capitalist regime, the absurd machines Fox concocts offer other insights. His machines, constructed from mass produced, industrial materials and with their mechanical appendages, wield a significant tension between what we see as modern convenience and the more insidious, hidden costs of our convenient lifestyles. We buy products and are products of a palatable, constructed reality and one that often obscures the truth.

The Breadfruit Tree Project is the latest of Fox’s inventions. It consists of a twenty-foot yellow transport container with a protruding robotic arm, pristine white surfaces and hydroponic lights that illuminate a collection of cultivated Breadfruit plants. The words HMAV Bounty are printed on the

door and a muffled, aggressive voice yells in the background. In its first installation, the container was placed on a popular Townsville boulevard, the strange arrangement catching the attention of passers-by. The unsuspecting audience though, may not have been aware of the specific references Fox was making to sustainable resources, the ill-fated journey of Captain William Bligh aboard the Bounty, and a skeleton in Australia’s colonial closet, blackbirding.

The Breadfruit tree is native to the Pacific and is a staple food source for the Pacific Islanders. It is one of the highest yielding food plants, yielding 50 to 150 large fruits per year. It was for this reason that William Bligh and his crew traveled to Tahiti in 1789 with the Bounty ingeniously fitted to house 1000 Breadfruit Trees. The plants, encased in small baskets were to be transported and would be used as a cheap source of food for the slaves in the West Indies. But as fate would have it a perilous journey from England and the battered crew’s encounter with an exotic paradise lead to a mutiny and Bligh and the Breadfruit trees being tossed overboard. Years later Bligh successfully delivered 2000 young Breadfruit trees to the West

Indies, trees which quickly became acclimatized to their new environment and continue to flourish in the region today, however Bligh’s mission ultimately and ironically failed when the slaves refused to eat the fruit.

There are elements within many of Fox’s artworks that hint to the condition of enslavement and it is for this reason that The Breadfruit Tree Project references the mutiny aboard the Bounty. Bligh’s crew were of the lowest socio economic groups, sailors who were often enlisted under false pretense and subjected to horrendous working conditions. They were considered disposable, separated from families for years, exposed to exotic diseases and often dying at sea. Floggings were common to enforce authority; the soundtrack that can be heard from the container consists of re-enacted monologues of the cantankerous Bligh berating his crew. The voice we hear though is Fox’s; he is as a matter of fact, a direct descendant of William Bligh, being his great, great, great, great, great grandson. And this is an important point that Fox makes, one can never escape ones history or origin. We are

far left William Bligh 1803 (detail) by John Smart, pencil and watercolour, engraved 1803 National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 4317

left Section of the Breadfruit by Mackenzie, page 10/11; top Track of the Bounty’s Launch from Tofoa to Timor by Lieut William Bligh 1798 by W. Harrifon, page 238/239; A voyage to the South Sea, undertaken by command of His Majesty, for the purpose of conveying the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies in His Majesty’s ship the Bounty, commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh : including an account of the mutiny on board the said ship ... / published by permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Adelaide [S. Aust.] : L braries Board of South Australia, 1969, Facsimile ed

above left Spaces of the Bounty by John McKay, Anatomy of the Ship, The Armed Transport Bounty, 1989, (courtesy Conway Maritime Press, London)

above The mutineers turning Lieutenant Bligh and part of the officers and crew adrift from His Majesty’s Ship, the Bounty. 2 October 1790 by Robert DODD, (engraver; artist, 1748 1815) & B.B EVANS (publisher), etching & aquatint, Composition 41.0 x 58.7. The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Gift of the Russell & Mab Grimwade Bequest 1973. Reproduced courtesy the Ian Potter Museum of Art

“If a man plants 10 breadfruit trees in his life he would completely fulfill his duty to his own as well as future generations”– Sir Joseph Banks, 1769.

the breadfruit tree projectText by Sarah RawlingsTerminus Projects, director

tied to our past and this can be an uncomfortable acknowledgment, particularly when you have a famous ancestor who possesses a dark and cruel side.

The Breadfruit Tree Project suggests that on a broader level, we have all inherited the residue of our ancestor’s experiences and actions through colonialism but may not be able to entirely comprehend the many cultural, political and sociological effects colonialism has caused. Such an example is ‘blackbirding’ a term that originally refers to ‘blackbird catching’; ‘blackbird’ being slang used by early European settlers to describe Indigenous people. The concept has a more sinister association to the savage activity of ‘blackbird shooting’, the recreational hunting of Australian Aborigines by European settlers. From the 1860’s, over a forty-year period, South Sea Islanders were blackbirded as long-term labour trade or to work in the sugar cane fields in Queensland. There are many accounts of Pacific Islanders being lured on to boats under the premise of exchanging goods then kidnapped, tragically to never see their families or homes again. Of the 62,000 South Sea Islanders recruited, the Australian

Government repatriated the majority by 1908 under the White Australia Policy, which limited or denied all migration for non-Europeans for nearly 50 years. The Breadfruits in this instance represent all things dislocated and displaced, the Bounty mutineers, blackbirded South Sea Islanders and countless other groups throughout history.

The Breadfruit Tree Project raises issues around colonisation, migration and globalisation, processes that have profoundly altered the world. Using the metaphor of a cargo container, Fox highlights how the human species is perpetually moving as wars spurned by ideological conflicts ravage continents and create ongoing refugee crisis. Meanwhile, technology and information flows restructure our experience of time and space. The international community is at a glance closer, distance collapsing through economic and political networks. The reality is however, that the world continues to be divided and separated, and equality remains a far-fetched notion when considering the cunning disguises for what are unashamedly, acts of slavery.

When we act, intervene or remove without thought to the consequences, we participate in a cycle of slavery. When we support the burning of the Amazon to graze cattle for our fast food chains or when we purchase mass-produced furniture made from cheap woods originating from third world countries, we are accountable. As The Breadfruit Tree Project infers, we not only rob and steal vital resources from those communities, off setting a number of destructive effects such as the disproportion of wealth and ecological imbalance but what we ultimately do is enslave ourselves into a global, trans-national machine. When we buy into the dream of convenience we are in fact, merely conscripted as slaves into a new world order, its master being the global empire of corporations.

The corporate agenda is driven towards profits and progress but what do we leave behind in progress’ dust? The Breadfruit Tree Project insinuates that perhaps science has become, as in a Stelarc performance, the robotic arm of God. Science and technology have increased our life spans and made our lives easier on the whole with modern amenities

such as urban housing, shopping complexes, miraculous medical interventions, high-speed transportation systems, even recreational and tourism industries. We no longer need to think about basic survival, this is the era of ‘lifestyle’ where our identity is constructed through consumption. Uncannily the corporations know consumers are heavily influenced by design, magazines are filled with glossy pictures of gourmet foods, clothing labels, cars and appliances. The only problem is technology and the market also move faster then we can keep up; last years i-pod model is superseded and made redundant by this years slightly smaller i-pod design. As our possessions devalue through innovation we become slaves to the desire of having the latest product, the newest man-made sensation.

The man-made world versus the natural world, it seems we cannot help ourselves, constantly meddling, making better, making easier. But do we consider the cost of this human instinct to improve and get a head? Do we weigh the pros and the cons of progress enough? In William Bligh’s lifetime the greatest threat to humankind was infectious disease

or malnutrition. Today the greatest causes of death are cardiovascular disorders related to smoking and obesity and of course, cancer. Cancer, experts suggest, is caused by stress, from environmental pollution, from genetically modified foods and vegetables that are grown in degraded soils that have long been depleted of their natural vitamins. Cancer may be a direct consequence of our contemporary lifestyles, a by-product of convenience. Recent reports indicate that by the year 2020, one of the greatest causes of death will be depression.

The Breadfruit Tree Project is perhaps then an alarming time capsule, like a container sent back from the future to remind us of what may enslave us and to take head in the choices we make. It could be a hopeful gesture on Fox’s part, expressing a sentiment that our destiny may be bountiful if we accept the challenges of questioning the world around us and making personal choices that support sustainable and ethical practices. If these practices are of benefit to all including the minorities, the marginalised, and the underprivileged, then a project of this nature may yet set humankind truly free.

Images on previous spread and rear cover Rob Parsons

The Breadfruit Tree Project, Chris FoxStrand Ephemera 2007, 7-16 September, TownsvillePerc Tucker Regional Gallery Invited Artists Project.

20ft shipping container, breadfruit trees, takeuchi mini excavator, hydroponic lighting, fan, pneumatic hoses and fittings, melamine, timber framing, looping audio track, hessian bags.

The artist would like to thank: Quintin Wood, Amber Church and Townsville City Council. Catalogue designed by StudioZeds

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Fox, Chris, 1975- The breadfruit tree project : Chris Fox. Bondi Beach, N.S.W. C. Fox, 2008. ISBN 9780646488417 (pbk.) Fox, Chris, 1975- --Exhibitions.

Other Authors/Contributors: Rawlings, Sarah. GBK Gallery Barry Keldoulis. Strand Ephemera (2007) 709.2

project sponsors :

This project was assisted by a Marketing Grant for NSW Artists administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) through funding from Arts NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government.

PERCTUCKER

REGIONALGALLERY

Artist Biography

Chris FoxBorn Sydney, Australia 1975 lives and works in Sydney

Lecturer at University of Technology and University of NSW

Education2005 - 2006 Bachelor of Architecture, Honours University of Technology, Sydney

2003 - 2004 Socrates Erasmus, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

2002 - 2003 Bachelor of Arts in Architecture University of Technology, Sydney

1994 - 1997 Bachelor of Visual Arts, Honours Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney

1995 Research Course, EcoDesign Foundation

Awards / Grants2007 Grant for NSW Artist, Arts NSW, NAVA

2003 IESS International Scholarship, University of Technology

2001 Sculpture by the Sea Bondi, Michael Carr Gallery Technology Award

2001 + 2002 Australia Council Emerging Artist Initiative Grant, Imperial Slacks

1995 Golden Key National Honour Award Academic Excellence

Commissions / Collections2008 Orange Regional Gallery, permanent public art work

2008 Substation Trench, Paddington, residential site

2007 1 Kilo Block Feeds the Whole Family, Jerilderie Art Gallery

2006 Fire Dogs, Chinese New Year, World Square, collaboration with Studio Zeds

2005 All-in-one Potato-peeling Soup Maker, Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, permanent collection

2005 Inside a Radio Wave, Vertel and Sculpture by the Sea, A&US Willea Ferris in association with Chris Fox

2004 Faceted Sound Studio, Amsterdam, floating sound studio design + construction

2003 Folding Void, Sherman Galleries Hargrave

2001 Waterwall, Paddington, residential site

1999 Vapour, Cammeray, residential site

PressABC North Queensland Paula Tapiolas, The Breadfruit Tree Project, 3 Sept 2007

Art Gaze Quintin Wood, A Modern Bounty, Nov 2007

The Sydney Morning Herald Tracey Clement, Metro Picks, p29, 17 Aug 2007

Dazed & Confused Harold David, Artists, Aus/ Nz Vol 1, p140, Aug 2006

The Art Life Touchy Feely, 2 Feb 2006

Australian Art Collector Andrew Frost, Chris Fox and Daniel Templeman, Jan-Mar 2006

State of the Arts Alex McDonald, Sculpture 06, Jan-Mar 2006

Henry Thornton Edwina Marks, GBK in Melbourne, 20 Aug 2005

The Sydney Morning Herald Lenny Ann Low, 28 Potatoes, Spectrum, p 19, 29 –30 Jan 2005

Henry Thornton Edwina Marks, Florentine gold and potato soup, 18 Jan 2005

The Sydney Morning Herald Dominique Angeloro, Critics Picks, p 27, 21 Jan 2005

Lives of the Artists # 8 Elizabeth Pulie, Imperial Slacks, p 4-5, Dec 2004

Broadsheet Alex Gawronski, Imperial Slacks, vol 31 no.4, p 28, Dec 2002

The Sydney Morning Herald Lenny Ann Low, Desk Job, July 2002

Oyster Magazine Artists Profile, p 102, Summer 2002

The Sydney Morning Herald Lenny Anne Low, Bubble trouble, p 13, 18 May 2002

Architectural Review Australia Gerard Reinmuth, p 32-39, Residential 2002

CAT Issue 79, Futureshock, Sydney + Melbourne, April 2002

ispi 01 Stephanie Pattinson, Interview the Artist accessing art Now, 2002

Real Time Kieth Gallash + Virginia Baxter, unBecomings, no.36, Apr 2002

Mosaic Daniel Nunan, Fringe Dwellers, p 6-8, Issue 2, Oct 2000

City Hub Garth Bolwell, Indahaus, p 20, 1 Oct 1998

SCA Handbook The University of Sydney, Cover Image, May 1998

above left: Charlotte 1996 image by Chris Foxabove right: 1 Kilo Block 2006 image by Ian Hill

above: 28 Potatoes 2005below left: Atlantis Bay 2007below: Garlic Fish Man 2006images by Alex Kershaw

Solo Exhibitions2007 Lubricant City, Gallery Barry Keldoulis

2006 Here’s one I prepared earlier, Gallery Barry Keldoulis

2005 28 Potatoes, Gallery Barry Keldoulis

2002 Egress, Sherman Artbox, Sherman Galleries Hargrave

2001 Independence Day, Space Three, Chippendale

Group and Collaborative Exhibitions2007 Art and About, AMP Forecourt, Circular Quay

Invited Artists Project, Strand Ephemera, Townsville

ABN Amro Emerging Art Prize, Auroa Place

Homes in The Sky, Museum of Sydney

2006 Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Artspace

GBK at Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Centre

Flaming Youth, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange

2005 GBK at Span, Span Gallery, Melbourne

2004 Muscle Reconfigured, TU Delft, The Netherlands [collaboration]

Work, Rest, Play, [Escape], Artspace [collaboration]

2003 Confusion + Coherence, Hotel Bellville, Waterloo, London, UK

Artbox Inc. Sherman Galleries Goodhope

2002 Slacking Off, Imperial Slacks [collaboration]

Desk Job, Mori Gallery

Positive Overkill, Imperial Slacks

Advent, SCAA, Scotts Church

2001 Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi

Art Castle, Dover Heights Reserve

Period, Blaugrau, Chippendale [collaboration]

Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Artspace

Temporary Fixtures, Artspace, Woolloomooloo

2000 Imperial Alliance, Imperial Slacks, Surry Hills

The Palace of Exaggeration + Everything, Grey Matter [collaboration]

Pursuit 2000, Imperial Slacks [collaboration]

One Last Show, Herringbone Gallery, Surry Hills

UnBecomings, Performance Space, Redfern [collaboration]

Eighteen is Enough, Herringbone Gallery

1999 Factory Sellout, Herringbone Gallery

Fundraiser, Herringbone Gallery

1998 Indahaus, Herringbone Gallery

1997 1997, Kirkbride, Rozelle

Reference, Hester Gallery, Newtown

1996 Landed, Kirkbride, Rozelle

For Your Information, Kinesis, Liechardt

MCLX, 235 Nelson Street Gallery

1995 Artful Park 2, Centennial Park

1994 Show + Tell, Allen Street Gallery, Glebe

Artful Park, Centennial Park, Paddington

285 Young St Waterloo Sydney

barry@gbk.com.au www.gbk.com.au

+61 2 8399 1240

www.chrisfox.com.au

© Chris Fox 2008