Lorraine Connelly-Northey: On Country

This major work by acclaimed Australian artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey has been commissioned by MAMA, with the support of the MAMA Art Foundation. The work formed part of Landmarks, an exhibition that celebrated contemporary milestones in land art, presented by the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in partnership the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Connelly-Northey’s On Country, is a nuanced consideration of the Murray River, and maps the path of one of this country’s most vital waterways as it courses through the twin cities of Albury and Wodonga.

This epically-scaled work had been made entirely of materials found on the country of Connelly-Northey and her mother, Waradgerie (Wiradjuri). As she has done throughout her career, Connelly-Northey had scoured this country, collecting the detritus and refuse of settlement structures, in this case the remains of a burnt out farm house and the pressed tin ceiling from Albury’s former Town Hall, and assembled them to articulate a story that was both intimately personal and expansive in its broader scope.

On Country was a bank of knowledge regarding the traditional ecological and agricultural practices of this country’s first peoples. It was a map of pre-colonial settlement and a probed remark on the role of waterways as both sustained agents for life and borders between peoples. It was an acute critique of the negative impact that ill-considered human interaction can have on our natural environment. It was a celebration of resilience.

Above all, On Country was an assertive statement of connection to place.