Installing Simryn Gill's 'Forking tongues'

Ordinary objects or the tools and spoils of colonisation?

Simryn Gill's Forking tongues, seen here being installed in Part Two of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, is a large scale installation work comprised of hundreds of elements. The work considers histories of colonisation, control and civility. Chillies were introduced to South-East Asia by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and silver-plated cutlery, disseminated throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific region by the English. The objects are arranged in a vast spiral that suggests movement, mutation and infinite change.