How I See It: Blak Art and Film

New visions from eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives.

Spanning moving image, installation, documentary, photography and video games, How I See It amplifies the artists and filmmakers’ perspectives on representation, the gaze, colonial archives and knowledge systems. These eight creators consider how First Peoples have been historically represented on our screens as they also imagine alternate realities and futures. The exhibition showcases works that use diverse materials and ideas to disrupt and reimagine, as well as expand the artists’ practice, supporting experimentation with new technologies and mediums.

How I See It, curated by Kate ten Buuren (Taungurung), unveils five new commissions by:

• Amrita Hepi (Bundjulung and Ngāpuhi) – Scripture for a smoke screen: Episode 1 – dolphin house
• Jazz Money (Wiradjuri) – Rodeo Baby!
• Joel Sherwood Spring (Wiradjuri) – DIGGERMODE
• Jarra Karalinar Steel (Boon Wurrung, Wemba Wemba and Trawlwoolway) – More Than Just a Game
• Peter Waples-Crowe (Ngarigo) – Ngaya (I am)

alongside works by:

• Essie Coffey OAM (Murawari) – My Survival as an Aboriginal (1978)
• Destiny Deacon (KuKu and Erub/Mer) – various works, 1992–2002
• Steven Rhall (Taungurung) – Avert (2017)

How I See It includes a film program curated by Jenna Rain Warwick (Luritja), that celebrates films that exist in the in-between, that question the notion of place, national identity and reflect on the historical representations of First Nations peoples. The program features surreal, genre-bending films; weaving histories, perspectives, and timelines to give power to the storyteller, and subvert traditional western storytelling.

How I See It will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue featuring an introduction by Dr Eugenia Flynn and new writing by Dr Paola Balla, John Harvey and Ellen van Neerven.