Sea Tooth (votum) is an emerging and ongoing collection of discrete objects, both made and found, that make up a seemingly disparate ecology. Common to all objects is their both their size and their wavering proximity from the things which they appeared to represent, or what they happen to look like. These mimetic musings make up a work that reconsiders the hierarchy of aesthetic experience. Unfixed from plinth or base, it is encouraged that the work scattered across the floor is to be handled, and re-positioned or placed anywhere within the Gallery 3 space, according to the audience.

Votive, from the Latin votum (meaning “promise”) is a term that categorises small handheld offerings made in both Ancient Roman and Egyptian culture, left at places of worship, both state-run and private. A recurring form that these objects would take is that of the ear – a carved wooden mimetic device to act as a direct communication tool to the deity, into which the prayer of the worshipper would be uttered. A floating ear – a precursor to our handheld phone technology, becomes almost an inversion of the found shell, in which it is said you can hear the ocean. Although both votive ear and shell are empty dwellings, containers for neither mollusc or god, it is the spirit of these mimetic devices that resonates with the objects in Sea Tooth.

Anna John’s practice is based in improvisational, process-led and performative approaches to sculpture. Having a parallel practice in music making, she is currently interested in where sculpture crosses over into ‘instrument’, where instrument is to be defined more broadly as a tool, and how this has been explored in art and cultural practices historically. Her work often proposes potential disruptions and subtle alternatives to understandings of time and finality, which are otherwise foundational to capitalism’s understanding of objects and labour.

Anna is currently based in Broome, on Yawuru & Djugan country. She completed a Masters of Fine Arts at Sydney College of the Arts in 2015.