I WAS HERE
Curated by Anna Louise Richardson.
I WAS HERE considers instances of denial, removal, absence and invisibility in Australia and New Zealand’s current and historical political landscape.
The photographic and sculptural work of artists Kate McMillan, Yhonnie Scarce, Alex Seton, Wanda Gillespie, Robyn Stacey, Tom Buckland and Amy Spiers revisit landscapes, technologies, events and people to reflect the continual remaking of history.
Sifting through the detritus of old futures I WAS HERE recycles wanted and unwanted stories of a contested past. The works act as containers of memory that slip between the real, the imagined and the forgotten. Scarce’s hand-blown glass yams reference the on-going trauma of colonisation on Aboriginal people and pay homage to matriarchal histories. Examining stories of vanishing, Spiers presents a campaign against whitewashing over histories of removal and displacement with convenient mythic fictions. Landmarks and permanent monuments are undermined, washed out and unmapped in Seton’s marble sculptures.
Highlighting the all-permeating nature of history and illuminating the otherworldliness of the recent past McMillan’s narratives of forgetting and place reveal and conceal an intriguing history bubbling beneath the earth. Constellations of mini-worlds in Buckland's work present a myriad of futures in a dystopic choose your own adventure. Gillespie’s imagined societies present the possibilities of an ancient future, while historic icons are distorted into Stacey’s shadowy inverted lands where fleeting moments of the present pass into history.
Exploiting the immersive scale of installation, cinematic imagery and the mark of human intervention, each artist has created a point through which history can be accessed. Building on tales of abandonment, degradation and the repurposing of historical narratives, I WAS HERE lays out the endless remnants of a future in motion.
I WAS HERE considers instances of denial, removal, absence and invisibility in Australia and New Zealand’s current and historical political landscape.
The photographic and sculptural work of artists Kate McMillan, Yhonnie Scarce, Alex Seton, Wanda Gillespie, Robyn Stacey, Tom Buckland and Amy Spiers revisit landscapes, technologies, events and people to reflect the continual remaking of history.
Sifting through the detritus of old futures I WAS HERE recycles wanted and unwanted stories of a contested past. The works act as containers of memory that slip between the real, the imagined and the forgotten. Scarce’s hand-blown glass yams reference the on-going trauma of colonisation on Aboriginal people and pay homage to matriarchal histories. Examining stories of vanishing, Spiers presents a campaign against whitewashing over histories of removal and displacement with convenient mythic fictions. Landmarks and permanent monuments are undermined, washed out and unmapped in Seton’s marble sculptures.
Highlighting the all-permeating nature of history and illuminating the otherworldliness of the recent past McMillan’s narratives of forgetting and place reveal and conceal an intriguing history bubbling beneath the earth. Constellations of mini-worlds in Buckland's work present a myriad of futures in a dystopic choose your own adventure. Gillespie’s imagined societies present the possibilities of an ancient future, while historic icons are distorted into Stacey’s shadowy inverted lands where fleeting moments of the present pass into history.
Exploiting the immersive scale of installation, cinematic imagery and the mark of human intervention, each artist has created a point through which history can be accessed. Building on tales of abandonment, degradation and the repurposing of historical narratives, I WAS HERE lays out the endless remnants of a future in motion.
Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, WA.
22 July - 26 September 2017.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CATALOGUE
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CURATOR INTERVIEW
22 July - 26 September 2017.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CATALOGUE
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CURATOR INTERVIEW
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Photography: Rebecca Mansell. Courtesy of the artists.