Exhibitions

Since 2017, when Fernando do Campo first learnt of the curious story about house sparrows being released of the Bull & Mouth Hotel balcony Ararat, in 1867 (alongside Melbourne, Ararat is the first place where this colonial introduction occurred in Australia), the settler-colonial history of this region and its relationship to animals has entered Fernando’s practice. Due to the history of the Ararat Gallery TAMA Collection, textiles also entered Fernando’s practice as one of his many artforms when he last presented work here.

This solo exhibition continues Fernando’s exploration of archival research, fieldwork, and studio experimentation to ask what role the non-human companion plays in the formation of colonialism and nationalism. Siblings pairs together two previously exhibited bodies of work in a new installation; an archival object and colour-rule response installed at the Ararat Library in 2017, is exhibited alongside a recent collection of textile artworks that use a colour-rule system to weave together migrant history, localisms, personal narratives and family collaborations.

The six significant artworks Escarapelas Capricornianas (2024), a series of textile portraits of Fernando’s five siblings accompanied by a self-portrait, are being shown in Victoria for the first time. Fernando’s practice is informed by the knotted histories of humans and animals, critically narrating the role that sparrows have played in the Australian imagination has been a focus for over a decade.

Fernando do Campo (b. Mar del Plata, Argentina 1987) is an artist and academic based between Brisbane and Sydney. He is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney. Since 2015, he has also produced work as the HSSH (House Sparrow Society for Humans). Fernando’s practice engages the histories of animals and plants via anthropomorphism, speculative fiction and archival research to produce multi-disciplinary exhibitions and projects. The global south and the legacies of colonialism and modernism that hold these narratives are a focus for both his research and his material studio explorations.

Fernando has presented solo exhibitions in Australia and the USA, and group exhibitions internationally. He is a Sir General John Monash Foundation Scholar, the first artist to ever receive this prestigious award for emerging Australian leaders to study abroad, which he used towards completing an MFA at Parsons School of Design, New York. He completed his PhD at MADA, Monash University in 2022 and was Artist-in-Residence at the State Library of NSW 2021-22. In 2025 Fernando will be presenting at the Melbourne Art Fair, with the Barnett Newman Foundation in New York, and undertaking a Thinker-in-Residence at the Taronga Conservation Society Australia (affectionately known as Taronga Zoo). Fernando is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney.

Image: Escarapela Capricorniana (Amparo), acrylic on canvas, school uniforms and Surf Live Saving uniforms, lanyards, metal medals, thread, plywood, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney
Photography: Shan Turner-Carroll.