Jonathan Jones, untitled (emu eggs) after Étienne-Pierre Ventenat, 2021–23, and untitled (vases, armes, pêche), 2023. Ceramic work: Somchai Charoen. Photo: Jenni Carter. Courtesy: the artist and Artspace, Sydney.

Artspace presents Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones in the inaugural exhibition at The Gunnery, before the exhibition tours nationally.

Jones’s exhibition Jonathan Jones: untitled (transcriptions of country) explores colonial transport, trade and the acclimatisation of Indigenous plants, animals and objects along with the colonisation of local knowledge. Artspace has co-commissioned an expanded presentation featuring new companion works, a new 550-page publication, public programs, community engagement, expanding on his exhibition, which premiered at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in November 2021.

Jonathan Jones: untitled (transcriptions of country) considers the colonial transportation, trade and translation of Australian native plants and animals, and of Aboriginal portraits, objects, and music. It examines the French expedition to the southern lands that was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte, led by Captain Nicolas Baudin in the years 1800-1803. As part of this expedition, an extraordinary collection comprising countless Australian native plants and animals, along with the largest known ensemble of Sydney Aboriginal objects, were taken back to France, and kept at the private residence of Napoléon and Joséphine Bonaparte, the Château de Malmaison.

For this exhibition Jones undertook extensive research in both Australia and France. His research shines light on the dark truth that this collection is no longer intact, with many of the animals, plants and cultural objects taken by Baudin’s team of naturalists either dispersed, vanished or simply forgotten.