Catherine was inspired by the grasslands in St Albans. 84053 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By VANESSA CHIRCOP
CATHERINE van Wilgenburg’s latest exhibition has been six years in the making.
Since moving to Australia from England the Altona North resident has been drawn to Aboriginal indigenous cultures.
Her latest exhibition, ‘The Treaty’, is a comment on colonialism in Australia and what it takes to understand a treaty.
“I’m an English migrant and I had no real understanding of Aboriginal culture until I started volunteering at Iramoo (the Sustainable Living Centre Victoria University St Albans)”.
Catherine said the grasslands at Iramoo were her inspiration for this exhibition.
“It’s only in the last six years since I came to Iramoo in St Albans and Caroline Springs that I really got how disconnected I am from this land,” she said.
“At Iramoo I saw how our suburbs float on the surface, not connected to the land beneath – how most of our life is still England.
“My work is always an exploration into the light, colour and land of Australia.
“It is a record of a European migrant’s journey of letting go of Eurocentric aesthetic values and opening to emerging Australian aesthetic values and their origins from within Aboriginal indigenous cultures.”
‘The Treaty’ is currently on exhibition at the Gasworks Arts Park in Albert Park until Sunday 22 June.
For more information contact 8606 4200.
