Esme Timbery

This Australia Day I'd like to recognise the first inhabitants of Australia, and celebrate the art of the renowned Aboriginal shell artist Esme Timbery. Her shell covered harbour bridges, slippers, shoes and other objects are created using shells collected from the south coast of NSW.

Esme comes from a long line of shell artists from Sydney's La Perouse, a beautiful area with a large Aboriginal population on the headland of Botany Bay where she lives and works. 

shellworked slippers 2008

This beautiful art work is exhibited at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art. It's a memorial to the Stolen Generation - Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities by government authorities. Their emptiness represents the absence of those children from their families and communities. 

Esme Timbery decorated these amazing platform shoes with shells, glitter and lace for the design label Romance Was Born Spring/Summer collection. They appeared in Sydney Fashion Week 2009/2010.

In 2005 she won first prize for her shell worked harbour bridge in the Parliament of NSW Art Prize.

 pristine beaches at La Perouse.

See some other photos I've taken at La Perouse here & here.

www.powerhousemuseum.com.au

www.mca.com.au
www.recollections.nma.gov.au