Bone Chisel
Post Mortem Brain Knife
Curved Awl
Aboriginal Spearhead
Aboriginal Spearhead
Aboriginal Spearhead
Hammer - used by Herbert Shaw to kill George King.
Hatchet - used by unknown offender to kill Margaret Gee.
Cleaver used by Jang Ah King in an attempt to commit suicide.
Prison Shank
Prison Shank
Prison Shank
Tools.
This is a series looks at different hand tools, their form, function and context.
All the tools are photographed against the same background to unify them as a series and remove them from their context.
The series began with the surgical tools. These highly refined instruments are extraordinary examples of form following function. Their almost sculptural beauty belies their nature.
The Aboriginal spearheads present an ancient tradition of tools. These particular spearheads also represent the some of impacts of colonisation. New materials transformed the craft and eventually their very purpose was appropriated, they became collectible curios rather than practicable items.
The cleaver, hatchet and hammer are mundane tools but knowledge of their history subverts the viewer’s experience. They were ollected as evidence and are now part of the Sydney Police and Justice Museum collection.
The prison shanks are handcrafted tools with very personal intentions. They are the ingenious conversion of the ordinary into the deadly.
