Warraba Weatheral presents:

To know and possess

Warraba Weatherall’s installation-based practice explores archival structures, analysing cultural histories’ existence within institutional repositories. Weatherall’s new work To know and possess, commissioned for On Fire at the Institute of Modern Art, draws from his research into Kamilaroi cultural materials held within Australian collections and their accompanying systems of categorisation. This work is a response to these collections, whereby the ‘preservation’ and restricted access to cultural materials actually contribute to the breakdown of cultural knowledge and practices. Weatherall’s work proposes that these normalised processes mark a point of death – where these objects are valued as data over their cultural use within communities.

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Presented in partnership with the Institute of Modern Art

6.00pm Brisbane time (7.00pm Melbourne time)

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Warraba Weatherall is a Brisbane-based installation and street artist from the Kamilaroi Nation of south-west Queensland. Weatherall has a specific interest in archival repositories and structures, and the life of cultural objects and histories within these environments. His practice critiques the legacies of colonisation, where social, economic, and political realities perpetually validate Eurocentric ideologies. Drawing on his personal experience and cultural knowledge, he uses image, material and metaphor to contribute to a cross-cultural dialogue by offering alternate ways of seeing and understanding.

Image: Warraba Weatherall, To know and possess, 2021, cast bronze plaques, 10 parts, 10.1 x 15.2 cm each. Photo: Carl Warner.