Artist statement: In this the second last image of the series, the children return on the same dirt track we saw in ‘Enculturation #1’. They walk with the Aboriginal women, older and happier, now comfortably traversing the landscape. Wildflowers bloom in the foreground, softening the appearance of Australia’s difficult histories, and old dormitory style beds lie discarded in the landscape. Bunches of flowers are strewn over the surface of the beds, with a sense that removals (and the historically cruel system of segregating children from parents) have been consigned to the graveyard past. The girls carry stuffed toy rabbits, as though, with their knowledge, they may overcome another introduced and pestilent species that continues to plague the Australian environment. There is a sense that the realities of the industrial and technological ages, and their increasingly urgent impacts, may be resolved with greater attention to the experience of First Nations peoples.
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Also known as Giclee prints or bubble-jet prints, pigment ink-jet prints are generated by computer printers from digital or scanned files using dye-based or pigment-based inks. A series of nozzles spray tiny droplets of ink onto the paper surface in a precise pattern that corresponds to the digital image file. In dye-based prints the ink soaks into the paper, whereas in pigment-based prints the ink rests and dries on top of the paper surface.
Whilst the term is broad, pigment ink-jet prints have come to be associated with prints produced on fine art papers. They are the most versatile and archival method of printing available to photographers today. A wide variety of material on which an image can be printed with such inks are available, including various textures and finishes such as matte photo paper, watercolour paper, cotton canvas or pre-coated canvas.
