desert coast 2012

Stockyard Gallery, Foster.

Near the old Mutawintji homestead site there’s a small overhang shelter along the riverbed. It’s like a sentry point overlooking traffic from the grasslands to the special waterholes. In the cave 20 people could sit and catch the morning sun, and you could find the Clever Man, Miikika, the one who sees. Maybe he could heal you. Maybe he could tell you the way to the only permanent water for 500km. Maybe he could send you back home.

This work has layers. Like mapping projections and representations of country. And snapshots. And me. And the edge between knowing and not knowing. The Mystery. The way landscape can connect us with the first Australians and the deep past.

Confused? Me too. But it’s OK, it’s just the not-knowing kicking in. We can work through it slowly and that is also what this art is about.