To tangle together like coursing water (video and mnemonic device)
‘To tangle together like coursing water’ (2026) was commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery, with the support of The Copyright Agency and Create NSW, for the artist’s solo exhibition ‘Mouth Mnemonica’.
“This three-channel video is a new commission for Mouth Mnemonica. In this work of art, the artist and her mother conduct a poetic exchange in Bukar which has been filmed with a 360-degree camera from inside their mouths. The dialogue in this video illustrates how deeply vocabulary is linked to place. It functions both as an elegy for her mother’s memories, and a reflection on the challenges Baker faced learning the language separated from the landscape. The unfolding narrative builds a vivid picture of the daily activities of Bidayuh village life, and the values embedded in these experiences. To compose this poem Baker and her mother worked closely with Poems of the Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak: Some of the Songs and Chants, 1973, by the late American poet Carol Rubenstein and the Sarawak Museum. This translated selection of songs and chants by indigenous peoples across Sarawak was collected in the early 1970s.”
Artwork text by curator Tulleah Pearce.
Artwork details:
three channel video, sound, 20:55 mins
To tangle together like coursing water, 2026,still from video, courtesy of the artist.
To tangle together like coursing water, 2026,still from video, courtesy of the artist.
To tangle together like coursing water, 2026, installation view, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW. Documentation by Edwina Richards.
To tangle together like coursing water, 2026, installation view, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW. Documentation by Edwina Richards.
“This sculpture is a tactile memory device developed by Baker. It helps Baker and her mother to recall the Bukar words in the dialogue exchanged between them in the accompanying three-channel video. By using this sculpture as a tactile map, Baker and her mother can recall the 329 lines of poetry that comprise the epic narrative of To tangle together like coursing water. This sculpture emerges from Baker’s interest in embodied methods for transferring knowledge between generations and her research into how cultures with oral traditions, and without written language, form collective memory.” Artwork text by curator Tulleah Pearce.
To tangle together like coursing water (mnemonic device), 2026, installation view, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW. Documentation by Edwina Richards.
To tangle together like coursing water (mnemonic device), 2026, installation view, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW. Documentation by Edwina Richards.
To tangle together like coursing water (mnemonic device), 2026, detail view, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW. Documentation by Edwina Richards.
I live and work on the lands of the Awabakal and Worimi people.
This sovereign land was never ceded.
The land I live on always was and always will be Aboriginal land.