Design and Art Australia Online

Yhonnie Scarce, a descendant of the Kokatha and Nukunu people, was born in Woomera, South Australia, in 1973. After leaving school, Scarce worked as a clerical support officer at the Research Branch of the University of Adelaide, then as a trainee in the visual arts department at Tandanya National Cultural Institute for a year before taking up a three year position as a receptionist for Wilto Yerlo – the Centre for Australian Indigenous Research and Studies at the University of Adelaide – but she found office work unsatisfying. During this time she considered enrolling at university as she had maintained an interest in being creative since school. She investigated what courses were available at the University of South Australia, discovering that glassblowing was offered as a major subject. Excited by the idea of learning how to work with this medium she enrolled in a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2001, majoring in Glass (painting was her minor subject). Scarce completed her undergraduate studies in 2003 as the first Aboriginal student to graduate from that institution with a major in Glass. She then immediately took up an Honours degree in Visual Arts at the same university, completing this in 2004. In 2005 Scarce participated in a masterclass at North Lands Creative Glass Centre in Lybster, Scotland, and in 2007 she was a recipient of the 'Women in Research Fellowship’ from Monash University, where in 2008 she enrolled in a Masters of Fine Arts.

Scarce began exhibiting in 2004 with her first solo exhibition, a self-titled show at the BANK Gallery, University of South Australia, and also in her graduate exhibition that same year. She continued to exhibit her glass works throughout Adelaide in various galleries including Nexus Multicultural Artspace, Tandanya (with her second solo show, 'Forget me 'NOT’', in 2006), Adelaide Festival Centre, Samstag Art Museum and the Drill Hall. She has also exhibited her work at Harrison Galleries in Sydney, and at Manningham Gallery and Linden Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. The Linden Centre’s exhibition of 2008, 'The Haunted and the Bad’, was curated by Julie Gough and also featured Joel Birnie, Nici Cumpston, Tony Albert and Andrea Fisher.

Her hand-blown glass objects often reference the on-going effects of colonisation on Aboriginal people and comment on the social and political mores of historical and contemporary Australia in regards to this colonisation. Shackled is a delicate work of blown-glass Australian Indigenous fruits and nuts, strung together by a necklace-sized chain. This work talks of the restrictions placed upon Aboriginal people once their traditional way of life was removed from them through past government policies. Carrie Miller, in her article for the January-March 2009 edition of Australian Art Collector quotes writer and curator Timothy Morell who said of Scarce that she has “pulled the medium of glass right out of its crafty comfort zone and exploited its potential, perhaps for the first time in Australia, to be emotionally and politically expressive” (pg. 120).

Though only working professionally as an artist since 2004, Scarce was short-listed for the 2006 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the 2007 Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award at Queensland Art Gallery. In 2008 she was the South Australian state recipient of the inaugural Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Contemporary Art Award. The other state award recipients were Karena Keys (ACT), Alex Davies (NSW), Neridah Stockley (NT), Vernon Ah Kee (QLD), Brigita Ozolins (TAS), Katherine Huang (VIC), and Tom Muller (WA).

In July of 2009 Scarce was able to showcase her work to an international audience when she participated in a group show 'Glassheart’ at Fort Vuren, Loevestein, in the Netherlands. This project came about when fellow glass artist Gerry King recommended her to the organisers of the exhibition.

Though making a name as a glass artist, Scarce states that “since graduating from UniSA I have become more of an interdisciplinary artist, working with installation, ephemeral and time-based work” (pers comm, 2009). Her solo show at Tandanya included paintings as well as glass work.

Scarce’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Flinders University Art Museum, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the University of South Australia Art Collection.

In 2009 Scarce was living, studying and working in Melbourne, Victoria.

Writers:

Allas, TessNote:

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed