Here, they stage a mise-en-scéne in which they invert vocabularies of design and ornamentation to draw attention to the historically British or more precisely English view of North Terrace. It is a scene that follows the outline of residual Red Gum forest in Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens; the gates of Adelaide’s Government House; a facsimile of Canova’s Venus, unveiled in 1892 as Adelaide’s first public statue; and the facades of the Museum and the University of Adelaide. Drawing on Gary and Renjie’s different but synergistic backgrounds, the installation’s spatial and social layering shifts North Terrace into a cosmopolitan realm which is exemplified by Renjie’s !MingMing! furniture design.

While welcoming “fanciful mistranslations”, the ArtHitects ground this work in an understanding of the colonial intention of fences and gates on Kaurna Yarta. Gary and Renjie’s preference for accessible rather rarefied materials and processes is also key.

Fashioning their work using paper and plywood and through processes of photocopying, pasting and router-cutting, they bring a localised sensibility to their internationalised endeavours.