Painting, acrylic on mounted discarded fabric, framed
Artist Statement
knOwn is a series of 15 medium to large portrait paintings, presented with 15 small corresponding paint palettes, visually exploring the relationships between genealogical ancestry and arrival, generational journeys and settlement through Australian landscapes, and exposing an inherited obliviousness of space, already owned and occupied.
With bold, almost garish use of colours, with their sequencing and placement representing previous generations and geographical locations, Riss has attempted to map her own inherited ancestral path. Drawing on resources including extensive family records,interviews and photos the 15 portrait paintings represents each of the most recent 4 generations, starting with her Mother's Mother's Mother. Many of the paintings include colour sequencings which code even earlier generations and their arrivals.
The paint palettes represent the 'obliviousness to other, while being focused elsewhere' and visually exposes inherited obliviousness with new learnings through understanding her own ancestral pathway with generational locations of settlement, framed by the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia. This helps Riss to understand and identify her own relationship to lands on which she walks, and the path she ancestrally took to get here.
knOwn, as a creative body of artworks, is in response to global events during 2020, particularly the Black Lives Matter protests, triggering reflection on Australian cultural self-identity and unpacking and acknowledging inherited compliance and ignorance in an already occupied space. "As a non-Indigenous Australian and ally to First Nations Peoples, I remembered there is much more homework I needed to do in unpacking, knowing and owning my sh!t, my part. And now I can continue to focus these new learnings and knowledges of my inherited ancestral path, hidden from the yesterdays... but relevant for the tomorrows.
Riss is a qualified artist and local resident of Ipswich. With a passion for colour, Riss creates paintings and textile artworks, and exhibits both locally and abroad. This creative project was supported with a 2020 stART grant from Arts Qld, BEMAC & RASN.
Riss acknowledges Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands, seas and skies of where we live, learn and work. With respect to Elders past, present and future, Riss acknowledges the important role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their continuous connection to culture, community and country.
The AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia: https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia
