Sadly the exhibition You Are Here, featuring new work by ANNE ZAHALKA, had to close early at Town Hall Gallery. One of the works on display was You Are On Gundungurra Land!.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Anne Zahlaka, You Are On Gundungurra Land!, 2020, Archival pigment ink print on rag paper, 115cm x 161cm
Using negatives taken over 20 years ago for her Leisureland series, Zahlaka has scanned and digitally manipulated this landscape to conform with an early painting by Conrad Martens depicting the Jamison Valley and Gully with a group of Aboriginal people gathering around a small fire on an unlikely outcrop.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Zahalka comments on the dichotomy between European visions of the picturesque, and the spirituality of place for indigenous peoples.
The idyllic vistas of the Blue Mountains are nowadays framed by windows, set apart by safety railings, and surveyed from viewing platforms and gondolas high above the landscape. It is not a place to venture into, but rather to look at from a distance. But the Gully is an important spiritual site for the Gundungurra and Darug people who have lived in this region for over 40,000 years.
Zahalka seeks to bear witness and acknowledge the Indigenous people to whom these lands have always belonged and lament the lack of care we have shown for this country.
You can now see the install photography and download the exhibition catalogue here.