Foreword by Ron Bradfield
Bruce Bradfield’s previous print works explored the bringing together of recycled and reclaimed building materials, which let his father relentlessly drive himself and his family, towards the completion of their own family home on the Greenough Flats.
What wasn’t evident in these earlier works, was the nature of Bradfield’s father himself - both as a collector and a hoarder - who travelled much of Western Australia to ’rescue’ items he believed were at risk of being discarded and lost to time.
Bradfield’s father had plans for a museum. But as the lines blurred and the family shuffled their lives about to make space for this, orderly shelves of collectable items gradually turned into neglected piles of junk. Not one member of the family remained untouched by this change, and as his father’s obsession unfolded and he then became ill, his collection took on a life all of its own - a life that would eventually outlive the collector.
One year on from the death of his father, Bradfield and his family are left with the physical reminders of this man’s attempt to save all the lost items he came across. However; this man’s collection of odds and sods, can’t maintain the same space or meaning for his family.
Instead - for them - these objects are a static reminder of all the ground given; all the lifting and shifting; all the squished fingers and banged heads and; all the heated words, that often followed each object as they arrived.
Sometimes too, these objects still bring forth a rueful smile or a loud laugh, as a good memory pushes past the pain of losing the collector himself. Now though, for the most part, these objects remain where they were left. Going nowhere, doing nothing - just collected.
Opening Friday 6th September, running until 21st September 2019.
Image Credit: Bruce Bradfield, Untitled (2019)