Voices from the Rivers and Rocks

An exhibition of prints, drawings and ceramics by Jenny Dean and Gaby Falconer. 

Contemporary Tasmanian artists, Gaby Falconer and Jenny Dean, respond to the journals of well-known colonial women, Elizabeth Fenton and Mary Morton Allport, in a visual retelling for a new audience.

Mary and Elizabeth’s journals detail the daily challenges of managing households and reveal their desire to maintain their positions within the social hierarchy. The writings cover the arc of their lives from arriving in an unknown land in 1831 and 1829 to their eventual success as respected matriarchs of the young colony.

Within the striking prints, ceramics, and illustrations, are scenes from the detailed journals of these women. Gaby Falconer and Jenny Dean were inspired by the double lives they led. On the one hand, Elizabeth and Mary upheld the rigid expectations of society at the time, and on the other, they embraced their resourcefulness – cooking echidna stews and climbing through windows to escape undesirable visitors. 

Gaby Falconer and Jenny Dean have collaborated on several exhibitions over the last five years. Their work investigates the appropriation of land by colonists, particularly in lutruwita/Tasmania.