Pleated Histories

Pleated Histories forms the new entry statement for North Regional TAFE in Broome: a structure of folded anodised fins whose layers carry the layered histories of Yawuru Country. The title holds the whole idea. A pleat belongs to fabric, and it belongs equally to the stratified rock of the Kimberley coast. Here, history is not a single line but a folding, layer upon layer.

Broome's history is a collection of stories. Indonesian, Malay, Chinese, Japanese, European and Aboriginal cultures have blended on Yawuru Country to create a vernacular and social landscape found nowhere else, and that multifaceted cultural life remains the fabric and language of how the town thrives today. Stories, memories, songs and dances are shared and passed down through generations, preserving culture while creating the common experiences that bind a community. It is a cyclical relationship, drawing on respect, integrity, resilience, honour and love, and returning them renewed.

The form began with paper. Folding studies explored layering and visual movement, and the way a fold can envelop a space rather than simply wall it. Inspired by the evolution of the site and the changing times that shape and remould the landscape, the artists intertwined layers of contours from the previous development into the geometry, so the new entry carries the traces of what stood before. Computational design then resolved these studies into a precisely calculated structure of folded fins, each angle set to catch the light differently.

The anodised fins hold an intentionally inconsistent blend of colour, and the work refuses to sit still. As viewers move around it, the permeability of the space shifts and alters; light strikes the angles and folds to open multidimensional perspectives, inviting a closer look. The palette belongs to the Kimberley itself, where intense tropical sunlight sets the brilliant blue of sky and sea against the stratification of ancient rock. That rock face is the region's first pleated history, deep time written in layers, and the artwork folds its logic into the entrance of a place of learning.

Like the community it honours, Pleated Histories is made of many layers held together in one continuous surface. Every fold carries a story, and the structure only reveals itself to those who move around it, the way a place only reveals itself to those who stay.

A collaboration between Daniel Giuffre, Tristan Morgan and Broome Artist and Art Educator, Jacky Cheng.