Angela Bakker: Nomads 1.

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NOMADS, IN THE EYES AND HANDS AND MIND OF Angela Bakker, are no ordinary herdsmen in search of greener pastures. Her perception of the term extends well beyond its common use. Nor is nomadism a subject that Bakker has suddenly or casually discovered--far from it. The concept has preoccupied her for years and over that time she has travelled mighty distances, literally and figuratively, in pursuit of translating her singular vision into form and substance.

Angela Bakker's perception of nomadism is all embracing. Concerned principally with the movement and evolution of living organisms, it encompasses mythologic, historic and contemporary times; it considers the endless and varied migrations of human-beings over vast stretches of land and water; it includes major migrations within the animal and plant kingdoms; and it looks to humanity poised to take on the ultimate frontier for dispersion: the planets and the rest of the universe. The first stage of Bakker's immense undertaking came together recently in a solo exhibition Nomads 1 held at Gallery 6 in Broome, Western Australia, the town where she has been based for the past 15 years.

Some 120 individual pieces, representing approximately one third of the concept when completed, were presented under five broadly connected subheadings: Seed Pods, Sea Birds, Cattle, Footwear and Boats together with several complementary tile panels and platters. Visitors to the show quickly engaged with the work, enchanted by its originality and quality. For those curious to learn more of what has informed Bakker's art, insights were provided through brief didactic panels.

To quote Bakker on seeds and their pods: "Plants have evolved a set of strategies for dispersal ... wings and plumes enable them to be transported by wind, fleshy coatings make them attractive for animals and birds ... some seeds have projections designed to be caught in fur or feathers to ensure distribution away from the parent plant. My interest in seeds lies in the variety of seed cases and the way seeds have been packaged internally, as aesthetic objects. Over the past 40 years I have frequently used their basic shapes as a starting point for bowls and other ceramic forms. The seed pods in this exhibition, based on those of the Kimberley's boab and kurrajong trees, are a development from earlier work."

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Undoubtedly Bakker's life experiences have influenced her art and outlook. Born in South Africa, she attended school in Harare, Zimbabwe. After matriculation she trained at the Hammersmith College of Art and Building in London, graduating in pottery and print-making and went on to complete a Dip Ed at the University of London. She arrived in Australia in 1962 and apart from a brief period in Rabaul, New Britain, where suitable clay was not readily available, Bakker has worked as a potter all her life. Her Chimaera Pottery workshop in Broome has two kilns. One is a fibre kiln for tests and small batches of pottery; the other a 25 cu ft (0.7 cu m) top-hat fibre kiln. Both kilns are gas-fired. She digs her own clay from various places in the Kimberley and after processing mixes clay from different locations with some small additives to obtain a mixture which can be fired to stoneware temperatures and possesses good throwing characteristics. Bakker uses commercial porcelain because the clays in Kimberley contain trace elements, such as titanium, which result in a dull grey porcelain.

In addition to clay, the works are noteworthy for the skilful incorporation of found objects. Such objects include mangrove roots, copper nails, sheathing from old pearling luggers, bits of rusted metal fragments and an extraordinary assortment of antique wooden shoe lasts. With the exception of the shoe lasts, these items were collected during daily walks with her dogs along the Broome foreshore.

Bakker described her first visit to the Broome Bird Observatory, some 20 years ago, during the annual seabird migration from north to south, as follows: "It vividly brought back memories of my youth in southern Africa ... the annual return of European storks to my father's farm where they stayed for the duration of the northern hemisphere winter ... One of the reasons I have included seabirds in Nomads 1 is to draw attention to the fact that Broome's Roebuck Bay mudflats are an integral part of a chain of stop-over places--the names of which form the decorative part of the pottery--and that the protection of such places and other sites through Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Japan, Korea and on to the Arctic is essential for the continued well-being of seabird species."

The inclusion of cattle--fundamental to the whole concept of nomadism--also refers to early experiences: "Growing up in Africa on a cattle farm, I saw the great herbivore herds and as children we used to make models of cattle from clay on the farm. I became fascinated by the Brahmin (Bos indicus) cattle in the Kimberley. These cattle are adapted to live in arid areas and are frequently the stock cattle of nomads migrating annually between summer and winter pastures."

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Setting up the exhibition before it opened in Broome, Bakker was keen to ensure that her herd was bunched up tightly together: "to give the impression of them streaming through a gate before spreading out over fresh pasture. That's how I remember them".

Twenty five antique shoe lasts provide the basis for another view of nomadism. Bakker acquired the lasts about 30 years ago and all that time, while stored in shoe boxes in her workshop, she knew that one day they would provide the foundation for an original perspective on nomadism: "I have always been fascinated by shoes ... footwear has a history as old as mankind. Humans started to disperse on foot and one of the first requirements was to ensure that ones feet were kept from harm while crossing burning deserts, icy tundra or sharp rocky terrain. The first shoes were likely to have been pieces of hide or fibre wrapped around feet and held in place by leather thongs. Sandal type shoes followed ... the first general use of closed shoes probably stems from the Hellenistic period in Greece around 500 BC. Lavish decoration soon followed with shoes, as with clothes, indicating the social status of the wearer."

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Initially Bakker was attracted by the aesthetic form of the carefully handcrafted lasts. Then came the idea of decorating them. She recalled the many instances in folk tales and art where shoes feature in a variety of ways. In no time, her imagination was alight: "the exhibition afforded me the opportunity to run roughshod over some existing concepts". The result is a body of work that incorporates an eclectic mix: the flying boots of Hermes, leprechaun shoe-makers, Puss in boots, Cinderella's slipper, the Seven league boots and the Old lady who lived in a shoe.

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For good measure, the collection also alludes to Greek and Roman charioteers, the Tour de France, Dali-esque symbolism, Puccini s La Boheme, a famous song by Eartha Kitt, a form of pasta, one sensible shoe, three party shoes and members of the footwear union--all this on 25 old wooden shoe lasts of beech, ash and oak decorated with porcelain, glaze, silver and gold lustre and clay collected by the artist from Dampier Downs Station on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.

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Following close on the importance of footwear within the main theme, the exhibition turned to the vital role of boats in shaping our history and culture. "Wherever oceans impeded progress, man devised mechanical means to transport himself from place to place. Over thousands of years, hulls evolved from hollow logs and bamboo rafts propelled by paddles, through canoes with outriggers and wooden three masted sailing galleons, to steel-framed computer-controlled cruise liners and supertankers."

The shape of ships has long held aesthetic appeal largely due to their hydrodynamic and aerodynamic requirements. Moreover, certain boats from mythology and history have taken on iconic status proving a source of inspiration for many artists. Angela Bakker exhibited 13 different boats in Nomads 1, selecting some of the most famous of all--Noah's Ark, Jason's Argonaut, St Brendan's Coracle--to underscore her theme. Other boats were more generic: Zanzibar dhow, Raiders of the north sea, Our first catch (grey nomads in a hire boat), Cultural diaspora (a group of musicians with their instruments on board) and 1421 (a Chinese junk). Some were quite obscure: The Jumblies--those people "whose heads are green and hands are blue ... and who went to sea in a sieve ..." (Lewis Carroll) and Bagamoyo, a slave ship whose title derives from a Swahili word for 'I leave my soul behind'.

One might be forgiven, following this brief survey of Nomads 1, for thinking there's not a lot more to say about nomadism but how mistaken one would be. Having glimpsed projections for Nomads 2 under the subtitle Hunters and Gatherers scheduled to be held in 2008, the subject, while ever it is in the restless inventive control of Bakker, is a boundless one.

Since her graduation in the early 1960s Angela Bakker has participated in numerous group shows and won prizes for her prints and three-dimensional work. Nomads 1 is her second solo exhibition. Perpetua Durack is an art curator and occasional reviewer. Photography by Juhus Pichler.