Siblings
Ararat Gallery TAMA (Textile Art Museum Australia), Victoria
1 Mar - 22 Jun, 2025
Since 2017, when Fernando do Campo first learnt of the curious story about house sparrows being released off the Bull & Mouth Hotel balcony Ararat, in 1867 (alongside Melbourne, Ararat is the first place where this colonial introduction occurred in Australia), the settler-colonial history of this region and its relationship to animals has entered Fernando’s practice. Due to the history of the Ararat Gallery TAMA Collection, textiles also entered Fernando’s practice as one of his many artforms when he last presented work here.
This solo exhibition continues Fernando’s exploration of archival research, fieldwork, and studio experimentation to ask what role the non-human companion plays in the formation of colonialism and nationalism. Siblings pairs together two previously exhibited bodies of work in a new installation; an archival object and colour-rule response installed at the Ararat Library in 2017, is exhibited alongside a recent collection of textile artworks that use a colour-rule system to weave together migrant history, localisms, personal narratives and family collaborations.
The six significant artworks Escarapelas Capricornianas (2024), a series of textile portraits of Fernando’s five siblings accompanied by a self-portrait, are being shown in Victoria for the first time. Fernando’s practice is informed by the knotted histories of humans and animals, critically narrating the role that sparrows have played in the Australian imagination has been a focus for over a decade.
