My creative practice takes place on the lands of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri Woiwurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, their ancestors and families, acknowledging their deep and ongoing spiritual connection to Country. I extend my respects to Wathaurong Waddawurrung peoples, whose lands I was birthed and raised upon that have deeply shaped me and my experiences.

I acknowledge Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri custodianship of the lands, waterways and skies that I continue to live, work and benefit from, recognising that sovereignty was never ceded. I come with an intention to deepen my understanding of ancestral pathways as a diasporic being, while sharing, learning and creating on unceded lands (Melbourne, Australia).

I extend this acknowledgement and pay my respects to peer African and Indigenous peoples across the globe viewing this website.

Ek is in ‘n Hoek Vasgekeur / I’m Cornered

Multi-channel video installation with wooden table, perspex, identity documents and four chairs. HD video performance, 18:30 mins on 46" HD screen, with four SD videos, 8:00 mins each on four 12" screen televisions with four wireless headphones.

Ek is in 'n Hoek Vasgekeur/I'm Cornered (2013) re-stages Adrian Piper's video installation Cornered, 1988. This re-staging endeavours to re-visit questions posed by Piper surrounding the fraught nature of categorical definitions of 'race.'

Exploring personal experiences of discrimination, the artist similarly draws from her autobiographical position as a primary source of research, exploring how her heterogenous Southern African and Australian identities could pass, fail and/or speak. This is attempted through the self assigned task to 'perform' inter-conextual identity positions (learning Afrikaans/Afrikaaps for example) to explore what may constitute or supposedly authenticate a construct of identity within such social and racial constructs.

Through a process of translation and performance Ek is in 'n Hoek Vasgekeur/I'm Cornered presents the artist's experiences of learning and inter-conextual performativity, alongside her family's archive of Apartheid government identification documents- the institutional evidence of the problematic language of 'race' categorisation that continues to inform social constructs of identity.

Ek is in 'n Hoek Vasgekeur/I'm Cornered, was first exhibited at MADA Gallery, Monash University as the final studio outcome of the Master of Fine Art thesis Oorspronklik by Roberta Joy Rich. Ek is in 'n Hoek Vasgekeur/I'm Cornered has been subsequently presented at Linden New Art for the Linden Art Prize (2014), The Substation (Newport, 2014) and FELTspace (Adelaide, 2015).

Photo's 7 - 9 by Nina Ross.

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