PETA CLANCY ‘First Nations Photography’ at Bendigo Art Gallery

November 22, 2023

Peta Clancy’s ‘Undercurrent 4’ is being shown in ‘First Nations Photography’ at Bendigo Art Gallery from 28.10.23 – 04.02.24. The exhibition includes selected works from the Bendigo Art Gallery collection and brings contemporary First Nations photography into dialogue with historic photographic images to offer an exploration into “how contemporary Aboriginal artists are turning the tide on the medium in pursuit of self-representation and truth-telling.” Featured artists include Michael Cook (Bidjara), Peta Clancy (Bangerang), and Naomi Hobson (Kaantju, Umpila).

The artist’s highly acclaimed ‘Undercurrent’ series (2018-19) was a collaboration with the Dja Dja Wurrung community during a 12-month residency at the Koorie Heritage Trust. These soft, blushing landscapes are half out of focus and have alluringly dissonant colours. Clancy sets her lens on re-directed waterways in Dja Dja Wurrung country that submerge the site of Indigenous massacres, capturing a seemingly serene landscape that masks the dark past of colonial frontier wars. To produce the works, the artist printed large-scale images of the landscape and attached them to a custom-built frame on the same site where the image was first taken. She then sliced and re-photographed the image to challenge our focus on denied histories. Trees peer over the fault line of the divided image, combining two contemporary moments to instil in viewers a yearning to see what is behind and, in turn, remind us to look for the what is hidden below.

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Image caption: Peta Clancy, ‘Undercurrent (4)’, 2018-19, inkjet pigment print, 150 x 106 cm