Aggregate icon (Rosetta RBW) by Jemima Wyman

This circular work is comprised of hand-cut digital photographs and measures 2 metres in diameter. It is displayed in a white frame on a white background.

Working from the centre out to the perimeter there is a central circle out from which radiate 8 separate segments like slices of pizza and positioned and separated by approximately a centimetre between each slice revealing the white background beneath. At the top of each segment are positioned four circles. Above these circles sits a collage that is replicated around the entire artwork.

Within this grouping is a black and white umbrella with the words, ‘It’s raining bullshit.’ On either side of the umbrella are red and black shapes with a paisley design and stripes. Also included is a photograph of a group of masked women with scarves across the bottom halves of their faces, and a central figure in colour with blond hair, a black and white bandana covering the bottom half of her face and wearing a black hood. Another group of masked people sit cross legged in front of these figures.

Moving back towards the centre of the work, and above each triangular segment the four circles each contain a different masked person, with a red, black and white patterned background. One figure wears a rabbit mask, another a Guy Fawkes mask with a black and white jester’s hat, another a gas mask or face paint, whilst others are shown wearing the keffiyeh or bandanas to disguise their identity.

Working further down towards the centre of the artwork each segment contains a series of multiples of the same hand-cut photographs, some of these include masked protestors in Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan masks, cabbage patch dolls dressed in black and white striped prison uniforms, protestors with bandanas and megaphones (speaking trumpets), others are wearing skunk hats and repeated images of protestors with white face paint, white hard hats and red ski goggles are also included.

All of these repeated images converge to the centre and to an arrangement of images resembling the middle of a rose. These repeated images include a black woman with a red bandana covering the lower part of her face, a figure dressed head to toe in black with a black and white bandana, white ski goggles, their arms outstretched with a tennis racquet in their left hand, five white plumes of smoke, alternating heads wearing keffiyeh in black and white and red and white resembling the petals of a rose and in the centre lengths of white diaphanous fabric curving to accentuate the bud-like centre of the rose shape itself. At the very centre point is a collage of overlapping hands.

The imagery for this work is selected from the on-going MAS-archive (Masks, Aposematism, and Signage) cataloguing the clothing and costuming of masked protestors from around the world. Aggregate icon (Rosetta RBW)was featured in the exhibition Counterpowers at Sullivan+Strumpf in Gadigal/Sydney in 2017 focussing on specific patterns (keffiyeh, dazzle camouflage, and paisley) in a designated palette of red, black and white. The creative transformation and disguise achieved through what the protestors wear in this work allows a collective response, where their presence is multiplied through a uniformity that both creates solidarity with a cause whilst challenging the constant surveillance.

The artist discusses her approach to collage making as follows:

I am specific, but my method is very rudimentary. The majority of the time I use tape, which gives me a level of freedom that I need in my work, because I can pull bits up or reposition them. With some of these, I have to shift things around throughout the process quite a bit, and also look at the work both laid flat on a surface and up vertically on a wall so I can get a better sense of perspective and gravitation. Then, in most cases I would make sure to flatten all the various elements. Sometimes, I intentionally leave a bit of lift on the edges. I am very conscious of this aspect in my work.