Artist in Residence: Anna Nazzari

Special Event | Updated 1 decade ago

The process of creating an art piece on a whale tooth from paper image to finished product
Process of creating a whale tooth carving
Image copyright WA Museum

Anna is part of the Spaced 2 Future Call Residency program and is in Albany to research the history of whaling and learn the dying art of scrimshaw.  Nazzari uses non-contraband sea ivory - her scrimshaw engravings are not intended to replicate the glory days of whaling, in which “man” is typically portrayed as the all-conquering victor over a leviathan, but instead allude to narratives involving humanity's symbiotic connection to whales.

For Nazzari, the scrimshaw engraving and unknown history of the material combine to “make mute objects speak.”  In the latter part of the residency, Nazzari will also be collaborating with artist and film-maker Eric Coates to create a movie exploring the supernatural properties of a scrimshaw tooth.  View this intricate work under the Museum’s new digital microscope.

On show daily until 6 December 2014.