Artist statement: Still life after Penn, is a complex interrogation of many things. It seeks to begin dialogues about what is right and what is wrong, about the living and the dead, and the spaces in between, while simultaneously interrogating the practices of museums historically and in the here and now.

I know these are not just skulls and femurs, after all, my family and community in South Australia endured the dehumanising and culturally violent practices of having remains and bodies stolen, dug from the earth or taken from hospital morgues in the dark of night by anthropologists and physicians. Although many have made their way home, the remains of my Aboriginal ancestors still sit in boxes within the collection stores of museums here in Australia and abroad, waiting to be returned to their homelands. 

www.damienshen.com