PETA CLANCY ‘The Soils Project: A Focus on First Nations’ Artist Talk at Tarrawarra Museum of Art

September 27, 2023

Peta Clancy (Bangerang) will participate in discussion with artist Brooke Wandin (Wurundjeri) about their works and the collaborative processes involved in ‘The Soils Project’ on Sunday 8th of October at 2pm in the main gallery. Peta’s new installation ‘birrarung ba brungergalk’ was commissioned as part of the ongoing research- based project and responds to historic photographs taken where the Birrarung (Yarra River) and Brungergalk (Watts River) meet.

Clancy writes: “My installation  birrarung ba brungergalk for The spoils Project explores the confluence where brungergalk meets the birrarung on Wurundjeri Country in Healesville. Wurundjeri Traditional Custodian Brooke Wandin writes that brungergalk is the Woiwurrung name for Watts River and means rotten logs. Since colonisation the water flowing through brungergalk has been perceived as a resource and a commodity. The confluence where the two waterways meet is where Wurundjeri Traditional Custodians have been visiting and spending time for thousands of years. Since invasion, significant sites such as these have become inaccessible for Traditional Custodians because much of the Country is in private hands. Through my works, I hope to contribute to conversation about the accessibility of waterways and Country for Traditional Custodians.”

Placing emphasis on the landscape, Clancy re-writes the historical narrative of photographs as possession making them a tool for “other forms of knowing”- Peta Clancy.

Read more

 

Image caption: Installation view of Peta Clancy, ‘birrarung ba brungergalk’, 2023, photographic installation: photo murals and inkjet pigment prints mounted on di-bond at TarraWarra Museum of Art, 3023. Photo: Andrew Curtis