When
Fri 7 Jul 2023
Julie Gough joins curator Kimberley Moulton to discuss the themes, knowledge and processes behind her work Invoke | Inverse which features in the Shadow Spirit exhibition.
Gough is an installation, sound and video artist and a writer. She’s a curator of First People’s Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. And she’s a Trawlwoolway woman whose Briggs-Johnson-Gower family have lived in the Latrobe region of Northwest Tasmania since the 1840s, with Tebrikunna being their Traditional Country in far Northeastern Lutruwita (Tasmania). Her research and art involves uncovering and re-presenting subsumed and often conflicting histories, and she frequently draws on her own and her family’s experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
For Shadow Spirit Gough has created piece called Invoke | Inverse. Through kinetic sculpture, projected film and shadow play, the work places the story of Lutruwita Aboriginal Ancestors from the 19th century back in Country. A mechanically animated track moves silhouetted figures around the room, intermittently casting their travelling shadows onto the projected film of Lutruwita Country. The watchtower in the room evokes a sense of colonial surveillance as the figures travel past.
The 40 Aboriginal people represented in the silhouettes include the remaining free 26 Big River and Oyster Bay people, and 14 other Country-people, including the great warrior Mannalargenna – Gough’s Ancestor. The group walked into Hobart Town (31 Jan 1832 — 7 February 1832) with 100 of their dogs from central Lutruwita to meet and negotiate a Treaty with the Governor. Once arriving in Hobart the group left in chains to the Wybalenna Aboriginal settlement on Flinders Island and their fate was sealed by the genocidal actions of the colony. The installation reveals the ever–occupied land reflecting on the Ancestral spectre and haunted grounds of Country.
Gough will sit down with Kimberley Moulton to discuss the themes, knowledge and processes behind Gough's work. Followed by a Q&A.
Julie Gough
Julie Gough is an installation, sound and video artist and writer. She is also a curator of First People’s Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. She is a Trawlwoolway woman whose Briggs-Johnson-Gower family have lived in the Latrobe region of North West Tasmania since the 1840s, with Tebrikunna their Traditional Country in far northeastern Lutruwita (Tasmania).
Gough’s research and art practice involves uncovering and re-presenting subsumed and often conflicting histories, and frequently draws on her own and her family’s experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people. She holds a PhD from the University of Tasmania (2001) and an MA University of London, Goldsmith College (1998).
Since 1994 Julie has exhibited in more than 130 exhibitions and her work is held in most state and national collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of West Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and National Museum of Australia.
Photographer: Lucy Parakhina
Kimberley Moulton
Senior Curator and writer Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta Yorta woman who grew up in Shepparton, Victoria. She is an Artistic Associate at RISING and a Senior Curator, First Peoples at Museums Victoria. Kimberley works with knowledge, histories and futures at the intersection of First Peoples historical collections and contemporary art. Her practice works to extend the paradigm of what exhibitions and research in and out of institutions can be for First Peoples communities in Australia and globally.
She has held Senior curatorial and community arts development roles at Museums Victoria for fifteen years and independently has curated numerous exhibitions and written extensively for art and museum publications worldwide. She has held curatorial and writing research fellowships across Europe, UK, U.S.A, South Asia and North America which have looked at both musicological collections of First Peoples belongings and contemporary art practices.
In 2019 Kimberley won the University of Sydney Power Institute National Indigenous Art Writing Award and is currently a PhD research candidate for the Wominjeka Indigenous Research Lab and Monash University Melbourne. Kimberley is currently the deputy chair of the board for Shepparton Art Museum and a director of the board for non-for-profit The Adam Briggs Foundation.
Photographer: Eugene Hyland
Learn more about Invoke | Inverse (2023)
Through kinetic sculpture, projected film and shadow play, Invoke | Inverse place the story of Lutruwita (Tasmania) Aboriginal Ancestors from the 19th century back in Country through a mechanically animated track that moves silhouette figures around the room, intermittently casting their travelling shadows onto the projected film of Lutruwita Country...
Shadow Spirit
Curated by Kimberley Moulton
A new First Peoples exhibition in Flinders Street Station’s abandoned rooms. Be immersed in Ancestral systems of knowledge. Traverse time and celestial worlds. Reflect on the shadows of Australia’s history.
Showing until 30 July
Shadow Spirit is presented by Metro Trains Melbourne and supported by The Besen Family Foundation, The Robert Salzer Foundation, Canny Quine Foundation, Dashiell Gantner and Anna Foley, The Dara Foundation and Gordon Darling Foundation.
Shadow Spirit is commissioned and produced by RISING.
Co-commissioned by Illuminate Adelaide
NAIDOC Week 2023: For Our Elders
2–9 July 2023
Join us to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
