City of Yarra 2012 acquisition

Congratulations Yhonnie Scarce on the recent acquisition of Florey and Fanny by the City of Yarra. Florey and Fanny was part of Yhonnie's major solo exhibition held in 2011. This will be a strong addition and a significant step in developing Aboriginal contemporary art works in this major collection.

Scarce’s work entitled Florey and Fanny features two domestic aprons styled upon the ones that Scarce’s grandmother Fanny and great-great-grandmother Florey wore when they were domestic servants in the early 1900s. In Scarce’s work, glass blown bush plums are hidden in the pockets of the domestic aprons. These represent perhaps the only link to Indigenous culture that Scarce’s ancestors were able to secretly hold on to whilst at work on a farm or mission. Their stems poking out of apron pockets, the fruits represent Aboriginal culture itself – hidden, contained, and forced into an apron of colonialism.