ArtworkJessica Birk
Artist. Painter, Printmaker
A young Indigenous artist who grew up and lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. A descendant of the Yaegl people, from the Northern Rivers of NSW, The Clarence Valley. Through my art I am able to assert myself as a contemporary storyteller of the Yaegl people. My art-making practice allows me to explore; to what extent I can imprint my identity and personal experiences upon the imagery, the colours, the patterns and the forms as well as the notion of belonging and familial lineage.
The body of work I am currently engaged with looks at two areas of the East coast of NSW to which I have a strong connection, the Northern Beaches and the Northern Rivers. Focussing on these places, I hope to articulate the feeling of belonging.
Both of these places present to me, a different feeling of belonging to country. Having been born on the Northern Beaches, I have grown to know and respect the place over time. In contrast I also feel I belong to the areas of the Northern Rivers, of which I know through my mother’s family, a right and gift given to me as a descendant of that land.
The notion of belonging is an abstract one; I aim to develop a visual language that enables my audience to grasp the implicitly rich understanding of a landscape, which is belonging. Belonging is knowing your country intimately. “Country is home, and peace; nourishment for body mind and spirit; heart’s ease,” Country is ‘known, sung, danced, painted, loved, harvested and cared for “ (Essay “Nourishing Terrains” Deborah Bird Rose, Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness)
This understanding of country allows for a two-way communication to evolve, between those belonging and the country to which they belong. Country is spoken to, sung to, loved and mourned, just as if were a family member. This personification of the landscape allows a more personal interpretation of what lies in it; everything then has a purpose and a story to tell, from the colours of the landscape right down to the stones within it.
In saying this, I use imagery of, or relating to these places, my ‘country’. Its recognition is dependant upon colour, texture and form as well as that of river stones themselves.
My audience needs to understand that every component of the image has a meaning. The colours, the patterns and the forms, these all combine to visually articulate the ‘holistic’ experience of the landscapes, which is this feeling of belonging. The imagery I use serves as a metaphor for the strength and enduring quality of the ancestral presence within the landscape. By doing so I want to show that in order to tap into this collective wisdom and knowledge of the place you need to be from and love and look after this living entity, which is ‘country’.
I am able to make a more ‘abstract’ landscape become more intrinsically literal through my artistic practice. As this is a ‘holistic’ representation of a place which includes its aesthetic qualities, its colours textures and representational forms, but also its past, its future and its stories. Belonging is knowing country. Knowing it as a living entity, a place that gives, nourishes and receives life.
