Parched
20 Nov 2024 to 9 Feb 2025
Curated by Professor Jacqueline Millner, La Trobe Art Institute Director Dr Karen Annett and La Trobe Art Institute Curatorial Lead Amelia Wallin, Parched is a new research-led exhibition featuring the work of eight Australian artists.
Artists: Jesse Boylan with Adam John Cullen, Nici Cumpston, Alvin Darcy, Treahna Hamm, Ponch Hawkes, Yaseera Moosa with Bridget Chappell, and Shirely Purdie
The exhibition draws together artworks from across Australia, with an eye to the southeast, to explore representations of drought.
As what was formerly categorised as ‘extreme weather’ increasingly becomes our every day, how can we imagine, prepare for, and adapt to a changed climate?
Drought, in particular, is often seen as a defining characteristic of Australian settler folklore. To expand our understanding of how drought is experienced and represented across timescales, this exhibition gathers First Nations knowledge and settler perspectives. From the impact of flood and drought on Country, to the personal and economic toll felt by framers, to soil as a carrier of information and the slow violence of dust, the artworks reflect on the ongoing impacts of a changed climate and how we might best respond.
This exhibition is one of the outcomes of the La Trobe University interdisciplinary research project Parched: Cultures of Drought in Regional Victoria which explores how we can more meaningfully understand drought to help us towards a just climate transition.
Public programs
Opening celebration: 5 to 7 pm 29 November 2024
Parched presentation and artist & curator talks: 2 to 3:30 pm 30 November 2024
Learn more about the artists and the exhibition in the exhibition guide [PDF 186.6 KB] and the list of works [PDF 120.5 KB].
Read an essay by Maya Hodge [PDF 97.6 KB] on Shirley Purdie's work in the exhibition, That Warrambany (flood water) from last year, bin hanging that whole freezer up in our tree. He’s still there today.
Image: Ponch Hawkes, research material, 2023-24. Courtesy of the artist.
