Launch: Midsumma Winter Nights | Because of her we will

Night screen: Wednesday 4 July - Sunday 15 July 2018

Opening: Wednesday 4 July, 6 - 8 pm

Midsumma Festival and Counihan Gallery In Brunswick are proud to present

Midsumma Winter Nights: Because of Her We Willby Pierra Van Sparkes

An ode to the matriarchs in our lives. Those who came before, and those still to come. The knowers, the fighters, the nurturers, the righters. Thanks to her, we can. Thanking her, we will.

Pierra van Sparkes launches her new work Because of Her We Will on an evening of celebrating including Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony by a Wurundjeri Elder and a performance by Baad & Yawuru singer songwriter Dani Sib.

Coinciding with NAIDOC Week (8-15 July, 2018) and developed in response to this year’s theme, Because of Her We Can, Van Sparkes’ work features as part of Counihan Gallery’s annual screening event, The Winter Night Screen Project. Each year compelling video works are taken out of the gallery and are viewable to all passers-by on Sydney Road.

The work is screening from 5 pm - 12 am daily from 4 to 15 July, and can be seen from outside the gallery on Sydney Road.

About the Artist

Pierra Van Sparkes is a Kulin country based queer Pibbulman artist. Her work is inspired by the shared history, feelings and encounters that shape lived experiences of Aboriginality amidst a diverse range of Indigenous identities. Working with photography and digital media, she aims to interrogate mythscapes that inform notions of Indigenous authenticity and the modes in which these notions manifest. Her work has featured in Footscray Community Arts Centre’s Blak to the Future, (In)Visible’s barbecue: Blak, Beautiful and Queer, Manningham Art Gallery’s Badjur - Bagarook - Yorga - Woman, and at the Koorie Heritage Trust’s Koorie Art Show, taking home the 2016 RMIT University award and the 2017 Moogji Club People's Choice award.

Midsumma Festival is supporting this exhibition as part of our year-round engagement with our LGBTQIA+ Indigenous cultures.

Image: Pierra Van Sparkes. Blak Venus 1. Courtesy the artist. 

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2018 Counihan Gallery In Brunswick exhibition program

Visit Counihan Gallery exhibitions page to see more of our exhibition program.