Artist statement: ‘A perpetual odyssey’ is a photographic work in which infrared images of rainforest Country are combined with photographs taken by Walter Roth, the Protector of Aborigines of North Eastern Queensland in the early 20th century. It was Roth who granted exemption to my great great grandmother from the Aboriginals Protection Act of 1897. Overlaying its composition are notes and diagrams drawn and sketched by Roth showing string games from northern Queensland and the region from which my family come.
The infrared reveals an invisible light spectrum and in a potent symbolic sense, makes visible the hidden narratives of people and Country, and timelessness of Story Places. Elements of the work suggest ancestral connection to Country and a Dreaming space, the superimposed text and images are symbolic of an intervention and reinterpretation of cultural and environmental spaces.
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