Thea Perkins: Recent Works.: N.Smith Gallery

'This series is a celebration of the civil rights movement led by First Nations people in Australia.'

That Which Endures seeks to examine the storied layers within records, the confluence of the personal and political, and the indeterminate nature of memory. To illuminate the many connections that flow through lifetimes - to explore what calls and compels us, and what endures.

'I’ve sourced lesser-known images, candid, taken on the periphery to convey the human scale of these movements. Following on from my interest in my family archives, and that this exhibition is at the University of Sydney, I am examining events that my Grandfather Charles Perkins took part in around the time that he was at university specifically the freedom rides and early years of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs. Pop was among the first First Nations people to graduate, and I think these images speak to the wider, often alienating experience of accessing tertiary education for First Nations people especially at that time. Sourcing black and white images, all of these events took place during Assimilation.'

'I have been interested in experimenting with the vernaculars of abstraction. Using colour science to explore the complexity of contrast and the darkest spectrum, all in addition to texture.'

This series depicts the reflection of the full moon on water, and the delicate abstracted forms it traces. It is a continuation of my exploration of shimmer, which has become an allusion to the dreaming. Not only is it a beautiful phenomenon, but light can be experienced everywhere - it is contiguous and omnipresent. 

‘Pwarrtyeme’ means to shine in Arrernte, and series extends on previous work to contemplate the transmission of light. The sun reflects onto the moon, which reflects onto water, an almost mystical process. It has parallels to the transmission of story, and even art making itself. I have been interested in experimenting with the vernaculars of abstraction. Using colour science to explore the complexity of contrast and the darkest spectrum, all in addition to texture.