Opening photos: Simon Fazio
As part of this years International Festival of Photography PHOTO 2024, Blak Dot Gallery in partnership with Counihan Gallery is proud to present:
FUTURE RIVER
When the past flows
This exhibition examines the Indigenous understanding that cities are obfuscations of what is. The artwork will reference the idea that monuments conceal the past. Underneath each building or stretch of asphalt there are deep layers of meaning and history. Beneath the concrete there are countless stories not memorialized. Under the cities, the rivers and creeks still flow, and with them the Indigenous narratives of the past that will naturally become future rivers. We can try to cage and redirect using concrete but, the waterways will inevitably run their own course. It re-images and re-memorialises what lies beneath the concrete slab. Thousands of years of story and life obscured. This exhibition of work within the public realm will draw attention to the role of the city as a besiegement, and how through artistic intervention we can allow the past to flow into the future once more.
Curated by Kimba Thompson and presented in partnership with Blak Dot Gallery and Counihan Gallery, the exhibition features work by Julie Gough, Maree Clarke, Peta Clancy and Jody Haines.
OPENING
2pm Sat 3 February, 2024
Location: Counihan Gallery, 233 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056
Public Art: Mechanic’s Institute (Front Lawn) 1-24 March (PHOTO 24)
Public programs:
Blak Dot Artists Market, Sydney Rd Street Party
Date: Sunday 3 March, 2024
Time: 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Location: Sydney Rd - Presented in collaboration with Brunswick Music Festival
PUBLIC ART Photo Boards & WINDOW Films
Jody Haines - Flowing with the future (surviving Batman), 2024
Dates: Wednesday Feb 21 - Monday April 1
Photos: Jody Haines
FUTURE RIVER: International Women’s Day
Date: Friday, March 8, 2024
Time: 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Location: Counihan Gallery, 233 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056
Then moving across to the Brunswick Mechanics Institute Courtyard.
Join us for a poignant and dynamic response to the exhibition, Future River: When the Past Flows. Delving into the Indigenous perspective that cities obscure the true essence of existence, this exhibition becomes a focal point for a special International Women’s Day event during the Brunswick Music Festival.
Event photos: James Henry
Experience the profound exploration of the exhibition through compelling performances by MaggZ, SOVBLKPVSSY and Aseel. This collaborative event, bringing together Blak Dot Gallery, Brunswick Music Festival, The Counihan Gallery, and Next Wave, promises an engaging and immersive encounter with the intersection of art and Indigenous narratives.
Performances, Presented by Brunswick Music Festival in collaboration with Blak Dot Gallery and Brunswick Mechanics Institute.
Artist TALK
Date: Saturday 16 March,
Time: 2pm
Location: Counihan Gallery, 233 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056
ARTIST
JULIE GOUGH
Julie Gough (Trawlwoolway). Gough’s art and research practice focuses on uncovering and re-presenting conflicting and subsumed histories, often drawing from her family’s experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Gough is primarily a mixed media installation artist, a writer and a curator of First Peoples Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Gough has exhibited in more than 200 exhibitions since 1994, with works held in most national and state collections and represented in two monographs, Fugitive History (2018) and Tense Past (2021). Gough holds degrees in visual arts: PhD (UTAS, 2021), MA (Goldsmiths, University of London, 1998), BA Hons. (UTAS, 1995), BA (Curtin University, 1993) and a BA in archaeology/english literature (UWA, 1987).
insta: @julietasmainia
MAREE CLARKE
Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung) is a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost – or laying dormant – during colonisation and is a leader in nurturing and promoting the diversity of contemporary southeast Aboriginal artists.
Maree’s affirmation and reconnection with her cultural heritage has seen her revivification of traditional possum skin cloaks, together with contemporary designs of kangaroo teeth, echidna quill and river reed necklaces in both traditional and contemporary materials like glass and 3D printing. The artist also has a strong multimedia installation practice, utilising photography, painting, sculpture and video.
Clarke is represented by: https://vivienandersongallery.com/artists/maree-clarke/
insta: @ ree_clarke
PETA CLANCY
Peta Clancy (Bangerang) works collaboratively and performatively with and on Country. She creates manually manipulated photographs that layer time, past and present, to re-construct and bring to light hidden histories of Country in a contemporary setting. Australian historical photographs of landscape/place/Country tend to frame Country as an object to capture or obtain. Clancy explores other ways of knowing Country through photography. In 2023 she was awarded a Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts. She is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in the Wominijeka Djeembana Indigenous research lab at MADA, Monash University and is represented by Dominik Mersch Gallery.
Clancy is represented by: Dominik Mersch Gallery.
insta: @ peta.clancy
Jody Haines
Jody Haines (Palawa) is a contemporary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her unique practice blends social practice, photo-media (photography/video/film), and public art, creating large-scale public activations that include projections, paste-ups, and street-wide photographic installations. Rooted in Indigenous feminist (k/new/known) materialism, Jody’s work explores themes of identity, representation, and the female gaze.
Insta: @ Heidi_Hole
W: www.jodyhainesphotography.com
