KENT MORRIS IN MELBOURNE NOW

For Melbourne Now, Morris expands on his ongoing series Unvanished, which redresses the absence of First Nations cultural representation in urban geography.

‘Underneath the concrete is the land our ancestors walked on, but so much has been removed and overlaid on our Country’, Morris explains. A sovereign statement of Indigenous identity and strength, Morris reconfigures colonial forms, technologies and structures into mirrored, geometric images reflecting the systems, shapes and designs of the land’s rightful custodians.

This new print is drawn from Morris’s public installation, Rainbow Lorikeet #2, 2022, which is featured on the walls of the St Kilda Foreshore Vaults. To create the work, Morris studied the rhythm and habits of native birds interacting with various urban spaces, using the birds’ resilience to reflect on how Indigenous knowledge and culture also survives and adapts to continual, irreversible change.

Kent Morris in Melbourne Now
24.O3.2O23 — 2O.O8.2O23
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Fed Square, Flinders St & Russel St
Melbourne VIC 3OOO
Free entry

Image: Kent Morris, Unvanished – Yalukit Willam (St Kilda) – rainbow lorikeet 2022, colour inkjet print, ed 1/15. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.