kids encyclopedia robot

Yhonnie Scarce facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Yhonnie Scarce
Born
Woomera, South Australia
Education Bachelor of Visual Art (Hons); Master of Fine Arts
Alma mater University of South Australia
Monash University
Known for Glass art
Movement Australian contemporary art

Yhonnie Scarce is a talented Australian glass artist. Her amazing artworks are displayed in many big art galleries across Australia. Yhonnie comes from the Kokatha and Nukunu people of South Australia. Her art often talks about how Indigenous people have been affected by colonisation. She has been creating art since 2003 and also teaches art in Melbourne.

Early Life and Education

Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, South Australia. When she was young, her family moved around a lot. They lived in Adelaide, Hobart, and Alice Springs. Eventually, they settled in Adelaide in the early 1990s. Her family roots are with the Kokatha people from the Lake Eyre area and the Nukunu people from the southern Eyre Peninsula.

After finishing school, Yhonnie first worked at the University of Adelaide. Then, she trained at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. There, she worked in the visual arts department. In 2001, while working at the University of Adelaide, she decided to study art. She enrolled in a Bachelor of Visual Art at the University of South Australia. She focused on glass-blowing and also studied painting. In 2003, she made history. She was the first Aboriginal student to graduate from the University of Adelaide with a major in Glass. She even made the Dean's Merit Award List for her excellent work!

Yhonnie continued her studies in 2004. She earned an Honours degree. During this time, she researched how Aboriginal people were forced to leave their traditional lands.

She kept learning and growing as an artist. In 2005, she attended a special masterclass in Lybster, Scotland. Later, in 2008, she received a special award from Monash University. This allowed her to complete a Masters of Fine Arts degree.

Art and What It Means

Yhonnie Scarce's art shares important stories. It shows the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australia. She loves working with glass because of its unique qualities. She uses her art to discuss issues important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These topics include genocide, racism, harm to the environment, and trauma that passes through generations.

Many of Yhonnie's glass artworks feature the murnong. This is a special yam daisy. She has traveled to many countries, like Germany, Japan, and the United States. She looked at how different places design monuments and memorials. She was especially interested in those related to nuclear events, genocide, and wars.

Her artwork Weak in Colour but Strong in Blood was shown in 2014. It was part of a big art event in Sydney. This piece showed glass yams and test tubes. They were arranged to look like a hospital setting.

Another powerful work is Thunder Raining Poison (2015). This art piece talks about the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia. It was featured in a national art exhibition in 2017. Yhonnie made this work from over 2,000 hand-blown glass yams. It reminds us of how these nuclear tests affected local Aboriginal communities between 1955 and 1963.

Remember Royalty (2018) combines glass yams and glass bush plums. These are placed in cases in front of photographs of her family.

In 2019, Yhonnie worked with an architectural studio. They created In Absence for the National Gallery of Victoria. This huge artwork is a nine-meter tall cylinder. It is covered in dark wood and has hundreds of glass yams inside.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Yhonnie was researching scientists who worked on nuclear bomb technology. She plans to use this research for a new artwork. It will be a follow-up to her piece Thunder Raining Poison.

In 2020, Yhonnie created Cloud Chamber. This artwork features 1,000 glass yams hanging from the ceiling. It is part of a series exploring the effects of the British nuclear tests at Maralinga on the Maralinga Tjarutja people.

Yhonnie Scarce creates her glass art at the studio at JamFactory.

Curating Exhibitions

In March and April 2021, Yhonnie Scarce helped organize an art exhibition. It was at the ACE Open gallery in Adelaide. The exhibition was called The Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives). It featured art from around the world. The exhibition focused on the impact of the British nuclear tests at Maralinga. It showed how the idea of terra nullius (empty land) affected Australia. The exhibition also included works about other events. These included nuclear test sites in the Pacific and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Teaching Art

As of 2020, Yhonnie Scarce teaches art. She is part of the Centre of Visual Art at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Awards and Recognition

In 2008, Yhonnie Scarce received a special award. It was the first Qantas Foundation Encouragement Award for South Australia.

Where to See Her Art

Yhonnie Scarce's artworks are held in many important collections:

  • Art Gallery of New South Wales: Death Zephyr (2017)
  • Art Gallery of South Australia: Burial ground (2011); What they wanted (2007)
  • National Gallery of Australia: Cultivation of Whiteness (2013); Silence part 1, part 2 (2014); Thunder Raining Poison (2015); Glass Bomb (Blue Danube) Series I, II, III (2015)
  • National Gallery Victoria: The Collected (2010); Blood on the wattle (Elliston, South Australia 1849) (2013); Oppression, repression (family portrait) (2004)

Exhibitions of Her Work

Yhonnie Scarce has had many exhibitions:

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Yhonnie Scarce Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.