Working together with the University of Oxford, ProtoSpace reproduced an Indigenous (Wiradjuri or Kamilaroi) dendroglyph tree section and site marker for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney in 2020.
Dendroglyph tree section
A dendroglyph tree section, site marker. 19th Century, collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1948
This tree section was created by Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi people, New South Wales. It was likely collected by A. H. L. F. Pitt-Rivers in Paris following the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, later entering the Founding Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, UK.
Reproduction proudly supported by UTS ProtoSpace.
3D printed exhibition piece
This is a 3D-printed version of an Indigenous (Wiradjuri or Kamilaroi) dendroglyph tree section and site marker currently held in the collection of the W Museum in Oxford, England.
Rather than a straightforward replica, this reproduction is a gesture towards the restitution of an object that will most likely never be returned to its traditional owners.
Experimenting with newer forms of restitution (such as ‘digital restitution’), this transmission of an object from overseas is an attempt to demonstrate the complexity of loss, and the intergenerational trauma that exists within many First Nations and other cultures around the world.