S PR ING/S U MME R 2020― 21
Collection Peek The MRAG Collection comprises more than 5,000 artworks by Australian and international artists, with a focus on works on paper.
In Focus Artist Derek Kreckler Artwork How to discipline a tree (detail) 1989 Compressed newspaper bricks Dimensions variable Donated under the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Derek Kreckler, 2019
Born in Sydney and based on the NSW South Coast, Derek Kreckler is an academic and conceptual artist, whose careers spans more than four decades. This installation, constructed of 1000 bricks made from compressed newspapers, is a meditative and timely work from a year, much like 2020, that is considered to have changed the world. Laid in a zigzag structure of receding walls,
representing the roots of a fig tree, it makes a powerful environmental statement about our throwaway culture of consumption; the bricks are made with just one month’s worth of newspapers from a single household in 1989. A wooden chair invites the audience to sit and reflect, yet with uncertainty about doing so for fear of the wall’s fragility. Words: Sally Denmead 28
