Textiles
800mm high
4000mm wide
5mmmm deep
As a settler, I seek out landscapes to settle my nervous system and connect with where I now live. At the old Davidson Whaling Station, Yuin country, on a perfect spring day, I walked feeling stricken and unsettled, photographing the still ocean. These landscapes are not neutral. Interpretative signs celebrated settler resilience and ingenuity, yet were silent on the Indigenous knowledge and indentured labour behind this ‘success'. The Long Con comes from Ambling Kwaymullina’s manifesto, in which she argues that “settler-colonialism is a long con selling the lie that taking living land by force creates connection creates belonging”. I use quilts to reach untold stories from hidden perspectives, including settler women, both powerless and complicit. The water's reflections are fractured by the textile piecing, the edges raw, signalling a lack of critical reflection and perpetuation of settler ‘hero’ stories. With gratitude to Ambelin Kwaymullina, Living on Stolen Land, 2020, pp31-32.
Please note, this artwork is currently on exhibition at Belconnen Arts Centre and will not be available for pick-up or delivery until the exhibition has closed. Please check the Belco Arts website for exhibition dates.
800mm high
4000mm wide
5mmmm deep
As a settler, I seek out landscapes to settle my nervous system and connect with where I now live. At the old Davidson Whaling Station, Yuin country, on a perfect spring day, I walked feeling stricken and unsettled, photographing the still ocean. These landscapes are not neutral. Interpretative signs celebrated settler resilience and ingenuity, yet were silent on the Indigenous knowledge and indentured labour behind this ‘success'. The Long Con comes from Ambling Kwaymullina’s manifesto, in which she argues that “settler-colonialism is a long con selling the lie that taking living land by force creates connection creates belonging”. I use quilts to reach untold stories from hidden perspectives, including settler women, both powerless and complicit. The water's reflections are fractured by the textile piecing, the edges raw, signalling a lack of critical reflection and perpetuation of settler ‘hero’ stories. With gratitude to Ambelin Kwaymullina, Living on Stolen Land, 2020, pp31-32.
Please note, this artwork is currently on exhibition at Belconnen Arts Centre and will not be available for pick-up or delivery until the exhibition has closed. Please check the Belco Arts website for exhibition dates.