Mabel Creek: The Resilience of Being
Every day, 11am to 5pm Saturday 18 April to Saturday 23 May Except Sunday 19 April, Monday 20 April, Sunday 26 April, Monday 27 April, Sunday 3 May, Monday 4 May, Sunday 10 May, Monday 11 May, Sunday 17 May and Monday 18 May
Free
8 Wall Gallery is pleased to announce Pearl Austin’s debut solo exhibition Mabel Creek: The Resilience of Being.
Pearl Austin is an Antikirinya Matutjara Yankunytjatjara artist and an active member of the Umoona Art Centre, where she currently serves as Board Chair. Austin’s practice draws from innate and lived experiences and her connection to Country, particularly in the region of and around Coober Pedy and Mabel Creek.
Her current body of work speaks to the correlation of natural and man-made environments, as she paints the creek bed and dam through its various natural states; a storm, a rapid torrent, rainfall, calm waters, and the dry season. Through her depictions of these transformative states, Austin highlights the resilience of Mabel Creek and its adaptability to pastoral interventions, including the building of the dam, that were made prior to the introduction of Native Title in 1993. The adaptability of the creek is an apt reflection of the strength and resilience of First Nations people in the face of colonisation and its ongoing, systemic ramifications.