"Dhanggal/(large) river mussel" 2022–23
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Lucy Simpson
Yuwaalaraay people. Born 1981. Lives and works Gadigal/Wangal Country (Sydney), New South Wales.
"Dhanggal/(large) river mussel" 2022–23
cast glass, sand, ochre and charcoal.
Courtesy of the artist.
Lucy Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay woman belonging to the freshwater Country of the Lightning Ridge and Angledool region in northwestern New South Wales/Southwestern Queensland along the Narran River, Lakes and floodplains. She draws from these spirited and culturally significant lands, waters, skies, and spirit in her creative and design practice to emphasise the vital balance that exists within the order of all things in the living world.
This collection of glass, "Dhanggal/(large) river mussel," highlights the cultural and environmental importance of freshwater river mussels and their role in water protection. Handmade with artisans at Canberra Glassworks, each glass vessel has been individually cast using an 80-year-old shell collected from the dry bed of the Barwon River. This shell was one of more than 2 million Dhanggal that perished between 2017 and 2020 at the height of the New South Wales drought.
Dhanggal are indicators of water health and environmental changes. For Simpson, each shell records a story of time and place, specifically connected with extreme events of fire, water, and drought that have been experienced around the river region. The artist explains:
"Dhanggal/(large) river mussel; an endangered keystone species found in the freshwater river systems of Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay ngurrambaa (northern NSW and southern QLD). Critical for maintaining healthy waterways, Dhanggal acts as a filter, absorbing, growing, transforming, supporting and living in direct response to relationships held in kin-centric ecologies.
It tells the story of materiality and memory and looks to the glassmaking process to record, absorb, reflect and transform its body to represent great periods of upheaval and environmental crisis across river landscapes."