‘Site’ is an exhibition of work from 2008. (barrattgalleries.wordpress.com/past-exhibitions-2)
“The circle is a universal sign of site(s) and its’ appearance and presence is widespread across Australia…concentric circles are sacred creative sites…” 1
Professor Judy Atkinson introduces herself as coming from “the three I’s – Indigenous, Invader and Immigrant.”
This also describes my heritage. I am Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) and am also of Anglo-Celtic and German heritage.
Art, for me, is an ongoing practice of processing my life. I’ve been practicing for 25 years and have built up my own visual symbolic language.
Each work is a ‘site’ or location of my life experience and is an external manifestation of my coming into myself through a process of decolonising.
“Spirituality” as defined by Atkinson is “an experience of numinosity that deepens our sense of self and identity”.2
“‘Numinous’ etymologically means something that nods or beckons towards us”.3.
This has been my experience of uncovering and unfolding my Aboriginality. My Ancestors, I believe, have beckoned me at various times through people, places, situations and through something else which for me is impossible to put into words.
The meanings in my work are always layered. Swarms are a regular theme in my work and refer to colonisations, whether externalised – invasions of land, or internal invasions of self spiritually and intellectually by other cultures or energies.
Profiles are states of mind and also a scanning over land (topographical maps of my ancestral lands) and through family trees for connection and identity.
My paperclay masks and shells refer to masks/fronts that my family over the past three generations, have worn throughout assimilationist programmes in NSW. They also allude to our tribalism beneath the external and reference shields, coolamons and the shell of the freshwater Waraba (turtle – Kamilaroi).
The Waraba has been a recurring theme in my dreams and my work. “a dream can be numinous…I don’t understand them from the egos’ standpoint. They come from somewhere else and are manifestations of spirit, whether spirit is in nature or the cosmos itself”.3
1 Djon Mundine Essay in ‘A Special Kind of Vision’ 2008
2 Judy Atkinson 2008 www.scu.edu.au/gnibi
3 James Hollis 2008