Ken and Julia Yonetani

Still life for the 21st century

In this lesson you will investigate the contemporary Australian artists Julia and Ken Yonetani who collaborate to make sculpture from very unusual materials. You will use the Frames to help you account for the ways that meaning is conveyed in their works.

Watch the video below.

Above: Ken and Julia Yonetani, "The Last Supper", 2014, Murray River Salt, 9 meters (length) x 0.72 m (width) x 1.22 m (height)

Images from: http://kenandjuliayonetani.com/en/works/thelastsupper/ Accessed on 17/03/2020

Above: Ken and Julia Yonetani, installation photograph of individual chandeliers on display in the National Gallery of Australia. Each chandelier in the exhibition was a part of the series 'Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nuclear Nations 2012–13'. The dimensions of each chandelier was different. Each chandelier was made from uranium glass, electrical components and ultra-violet lights. For more detail see the exhibition brochure under the heading 'Further reading' below.

Image accessed from: https://nga.gov.au/contemporary/ on 17/03/2020.

Activity

Imagine you were able to interview the artists Ken and Julia Yonetani for a national news site. Your aim is to introduce their practice to an audience who has not heard about it before and has a limited understanding of contemporary art.
- What are the four questions you would ask them?
- In bullet point format- jot down some of the key information you would like the artists to cover in their responses to you.
Ken and Julia have described 'The Last Supper' as 'a kind of Armageddon, a work for the twenty-first century, laden with the anxieties of the current age'. Use the postmodern and cultural frames to investigate this still life artwork. In your response refer to this description above.

Upload your response to your shared digital platform for feedback.

Hint: You might use the Frames scaffold to help structure your investigation.