We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Lola Ryan

A sculpture of rows of small cream and red shells arranged in columns.

Lola Ryan Untitled bird (galah) 2000 © Estate of the artist

Untitled bird (galah) 2000

Dharawal and Eora artist Lola Ryan is well known for her beautiful shell-work, along with other Aboriginal artists from La Perouse including Esme Timbery and Mavis Longbottom. Shell-work draws on inherited knowledge and cultural practices in which shells are used for tools, fishhooks and decoration.   

Ryan experimented with the traditional practice of shell-work in collaborations with Sydney-based art collector Peter Fay. They created abstract images for a series on Australian maps and one on Australian birds. Untitled bird (galah) is a striking example of her experimental approach.  

La Perouse women artists have been working with and earning an income from shell-work for generations, taking family shell-collecting trips to sites in their Country in Sydney and along the South Coast of New South Wales, visiting local beaches and catching the ferry across Kamay/Botany Bay to spend the day harvesting shells around Kurnell or Cronulla. Strong family connections down the coast, including in the sister community of Wreck Bay, provided another source of material, with many road trips returning buckets of shells.   

Boxes, ornamental booties or small slippers are often made in shell-work, as are picture frames. Since the 1930s the Sydney Harbour Bridge has also been a popular form, as seen in the historical work Sydney Harbour Bridge c1939 by an unknown artist, which uses shell grit to fill in the bridge pylons, and in Ryan’s own Sydney Harbour Bridge 2000. The artists often work with family templates, which they fold and glue to create a sculptural cardboard form. They cover these in fabric, shell-work and on some occasions with glitter – a modern take on shell grit. 

  • K–6 discussion questions

    • Look closely at the way the shells are arranged in Untitled bird (galah) 2000. How many kinds of shells can you see? What effects has the artist created with pattern and repetition? What does the texture remind you of?  

    • The title of this work is Untitled bird (galah). Picture a galah in your mind. What is the first thing you notice? How does this work suggest a galah? Look at its colour, texture and design. Look at another shell work by Ryan, Untitled bird (cockatoo) 2000, and ask the same questions. Can you think of other birds you could recognise from just two or three colours? 

  • K–6 activities

    • Shells are not alive, but every shell has been the home of a living creature and can remind us of them. They are evidence of life. Think about how old the shells might be and about the creatures that once lived in them. Imagine and draw real or invented creatures that could call these shells home. 

  • 7–12 discussion questions

    • Collecting shells at specific beaches and bays during different seasons and environmental events requires an intimate knowledge of Country. This was overlooked by the missionaries at La Perouse when Aboriginal people were discouraged from practising culture. But because the missionaries did not recognise the importance of shellwork, the practice survived, and cultural knowledge was passed down through generations of La Perouse women in their shellwork designs and cardboard templates. 
       
      Can you think of other ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists preserve and protect cultural knowledge? Consider artworks such as Dhin-ggay-laa (moonlight) 2022 by Andrew Snelgar, The gatherer’s tools from the installation Narrbong-galang (many bags) 2022 by Lorraine Connelly-Northey or Milŋurr 2021 by Gunybi Ganambarr. 

    • While Untitled bird (galah) is a striking example of Ryan’s experimental approach to the generations-old art of shell-work, she also used shells to re-imagine modern icons such as Sydney Harbour Bridge 2000 or Sydney Harbour Bridge 2000. Look at these artworks and notice their scale, materials and design. Consider what it means to re-make the bridge – recognised around the world as a symbol of Australia – in the materials of a practice specific to its location and thousands of years old. Does this challenge our ideas of Australian identity and history? Debate in class. 
       

  • 7–12 activities

    • Lola Ryan has represented a galah using only two colours. Create your own abstract artwork to represent a bird you see every day. Using pastels, paints or collage, select one colour or a set of colours. For example, a magpie might be black and white. What about a kookaburra?   

    • Consider your finished artwork. Do you see the bird you had in mind? Why, or why not? What works and what doesn’t? Discuss your artwork with your class. Ask each other to guess the birds you’ve each represented in abstract form. How do the works across the class differ from each other?  

    • Research the history of Aboriginal reserves and missions in New South Wales. Can you find similarities in the experiences of the people who lived at these places? Consider the work of other artists, such as Inquisitive child 1994 and Inspection day 1994 by Elaine Russell or Untitled circa 1999 and Days of harmony on my Mission in days gone by 1998 by Roy Kennedy. How do these artworks provide an insight into the lives of these artists? Consider the effects of colonisation and dispossession as well as the strength and resilience of each artist and their communities.