An art exhibition examining the impacts of colonial land and water management across Victoria has opened at the Brimbank Gallery and Brimbank Projection Gallery.
In Occupation Studies: Agriculture Exhibition, Tahlia Palmer — an artist of Yuwaalaraay and European descent — explores the environmental damage caused by industrial farming and colonial land use, as well as the suppression of local Indigenous knowledge systems in relation to land and water management.
The exhibition features field recordings, historical footage, abstract imagery and AI-generated sounds and images.
Palmer said the research process for the exhibition began during her creative residency with the Public Records Office of Victoria last year.
“I spent four months looking through the archives for information about land and water management in Victoria, and conducted field research based on sites and situations I was drawn to.”
Palmer then travelled to different Countries across Victoria where she conducted field recordings above and below different bodies of water including in dams, reservoirs, old mine sites, river revitalisation sites, and logging and plantation sites as well as the ocean.
“Because of the emotionally confronting nature of this research, and my acknowledgement of the sensitivities and protocols around speaking about Country that is not my own, my intention was to make works that speak to broader environmental impacts of the European invasion of this continent,” she said.
Through her art, Palmer said she would like audiences to reflect on how colonial land was not managed with the best interests of Indigenous peoples in mind.
“…those choices were made in the context of land theft. I want audiences to understand how much was lost because of those choices, and I want them to think about how hard Aboriginal people have had to fight to maintain our relationship to Country… the scale of violent disconnection that was forced,” she said.
Occupation Studies: Agriculture Exhibition is a free event at the Brimbank Gallery and Brimbank Projection Gallery, and is supported by Creative Brimbank.
The exhibition will run until August 29.
More info can be found on the Creative Brimbank website.
