Hardback, full colour illustrations, 100 pages, W140mm x H190mm
This book documents Ron Terada’s walkabout of Cockatoo Island in
September 2008. Expecting an exotic, tropical landscape replete with
cockatoos and other rare fauna, Terada instead found himself on an
island more in common to an isolated penitentiary like Alcatraz.
Located off Sydney Harbour, Cockatoo Island was indeed once the site of
a former prison and shipyard, yet on this occasion, also the setting
for the 2008 Sydney Biennale.
Presented in a refined yet deadpan serial layout, Terada’s Cockatoo Island
“blacks-out” any visual evidence regarding the works in the exhibit,
the trajectory of his walk, or any clues to the island itself. What
remains is a list of each participating artist as presented by the
Biennale organizers: on homely, hand-made signage that evokes at once
both protest and resignation.