AMALA GROOM

13 July - 08 September 2018 @ CCAS: Gorman Arts Centre

Held nationally each year, NAIDOC Week 2018 will be held from Sunday 8 July through to Sunday 15 July. The theme for NAIDOC Week 2018 is 'Because of Her, We Can!', to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have played and continue to play significant roles in their families and communities lives at community, local, state and national levels. Further information: http://www.naidoc.org.au/get-involved/2018-theme

Amala Groom is a Wiradjuri conceptual artist whose practice, as the performance of her cultural sovereignty, is informed and driven by First Nations epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies. Her work, a form of passionate activism, presents acute and incisive commentary on contemporary socio-political issues. Articulated across diverse media, Groom’s work often subverts and unsettles western iconographies in order to enunciate Aboriginal stories, experiences and histories, and to interrogate and undermine the legacy of colonialism. Not wishing to create reactionary works which tacitly allow contemporary political operatives serving the colonial ideology to set her artistic agenda, Groom seeks to create works which proactively and creatively unpack and undermine the Colonial Project, the on-going philosophy of colonialism that has imperialistically subjugated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples since 1770.

Does she know the Revolution is coming? is a multi-channel digital video work where Amala Groom performs an extended conversation between herself and the wife of a former Prime Minister in a stately Manhattan home.

Based upon an actual conversation, the installation seeks to expand upon the language of ownership and authority surrounding western perceptions of Aboriginal art and culture, unveiling the indistinct nuances of interpretation and the potentially shocking hidden truths that language can possess. Reimagining the conversation and the behaviours of both parties, Groom unpacks what was said, what was imagined to be said, and what it could have really meant.

As a bookend to the conversation, the exhibition features the painting, Awelye, 1990 – by the very subject of the conversation, Anmatyerre artist, Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Production credits

Commissioned by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
Filming supported by CuriousWorks
Emily Kame Kngwarreye artwork loan courtesy of Simon Chan – Art Atrium
Curated by Adam Porter
Videographer: Adam McPhilbin
Editor: Elias Nohra
Hair and Make up: Shannon O'Reilly
Artist Assistant: Kristine Townsend
Production stills: Hamish Ta-mé

Image: Amala Groom Does she know the Revolution is coming? 2017, production still, image credit: Hamish Ta-mé

'Does She Know The Revolution Is Coming?' Exhibition Catalogue