Blak Dot Gallery in partnership with Monash Country Lines Archive, is proud to present Sky Country: Our Connection to the Cosmos, as part of the Yirramboi Festival 2017.

Looking to the sky, our peoples have always connected with its stories and lessons in forming our relationship with the earth. There are many valuable lessons to be learnt from the astronomic plains that surround us; navigation, seasons, time and story. But the process of connecting with Sky Country can be difficult, halted sometimes by our inability to access language that adequately translates these stories and histories.

Inspired by the Monash Country Lines Archive animation of the Taungurung Dreaming story Winjara Wiganhanyin (Why We All Die), SKY COUNTRY: Our Connection to the Cosmos seeks Aboriginal modes of connection with the cosmos through the contemporary artistic interpretation of seven emerging artists.

Artists include Timmah Ball, Gabi Briggs, Dean Cross, Edwina Green, Hayley Millar-Baker, Neil Morris and Katie West.

This will also mark the reveal of a new exhibition space for Blak Dot Gallery. Along the exterior back wall of the gallery, accessible by the laneway, a new work titled ‘Berrin Ngawiin Ningula-bil’, will be installed. Six Taungurung youth undertook a collage-making workshop lead by Peter Waples-Crowe to produce their own artworks. The artists responded to the story and the language in the animation Winjara Wiganhanyin (Why We All Die) when producing their work. The participating artists in this project are Tahnee Edwards, Corey Harding, Mitchil Harding, Kate ten Buuren, Iluka Sax-Williams, and Isobel Morphy-Walsh. These beautiful collage works will be exhibited on giant billboards in this new laneway space!

SKY COUNTRY evokes powerful themes exploring the relationship between the Earth and the Sky, reclamation of languages and knowledges and the way in which we share our story.

Curator: Kate ten Buuren (Taungurung)
Assistant Curator: Adam Ridgeway (Worimi)

Opening event: Thursday May 11, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Artist Talk: Saturday May 20
Panel Discussion: Saturday May 27

Image: Dean Cross, kurruwon koora (summer night – Ngunnawal country)

‘Proudly supported by the Australian Communities Foundation, Elizabeth Eggleston Fund.’