Diaspora Making Machines

Domestic Violets features a triptych painted in violet hues, with a portrait of my father’s mother, Clorine Morthem (Dhungutti) at the centre. Typically leading a harsh life of a ‘half-caste’, she was stolen at twelve and institutionalised as a Ward of the State at Cootamundra Girls home. She appears flanked by stylised domestic cleaning products, purely as a pun. The colour violet, to me best represents the colour of cultural change and ironically ventures close to the official colour of the Catholic Church.

Lucky Country consists of large printed text pieces. Inserted into the heavy font are historic images featuring pictorial examples of dispossession in process; the very dark history that Australia has consistently attempted to sweep under the mat.

Each image is tidily fitted into a classic colloquial expression, in the distinct Aussie vernacular referencing quintessential comfort and or pleasure of being.

Really Bins are the product of a collaboration between myself and the masterful Will Coles, ubiquitous street artist. The initial concept began with producing one bin, the SORRY bin, carefully moulded in resin with added iron dust, giving the effect of solid metal. The suite of bins are a satirical homage to the diarised days of national patronage, each featuring a federal public holiday embossed on front panel.