Exhibition
Merran Sierakowski – ‘Tchotchke’
Where
Outstation Gallery8 Parap Place
Parap, 0820
Darwin, Northern Territory
Tchotchke is a Yiddish word of Slavic/Polish origin that translates roughly into English as ‘small baubles of little value’. Emoji on which these works are based is a Japanese pictorial language developed for use on mobile devices.
Both of these concepts are ubiquitous in the cultures of modern consumerist life, their inherent meanings or lack of meaning, translate across language, states, gender, politics, and religion.
I have created versions of my own to add to a continually evolving alphabet of concepts and clutter that surrounds the political discourse in Australia but also in other countries where we Australians look to for our sense of place in the world. They exist as a pictorial representation that could be used in a conversation about current political events in the same way a smiley face can be used to immediately indicate an emotional response.
The Tchotchke are 3d to highlight the reality of the ideas and their effects in real time and on real people They are at once useless baubles but serious concepts that occupy real space and time and affect all of us in immediate and recognisable ways.
Merran Sierakowski October 2018
