About Judy
Judy Watson was born in Mundubbera, Queensland. Judy Watson’s Aboriginal matrilineal family is from Waanyi country in north-west Queensland. The artist’s process evolves by working from site and memory, revealing Indigenous histories, following lines of emotional and physical topography that centre on particular places and moments in time. Spanning painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and video, her practice often draws on archival documents and materials, such as maps, letters and police reports, to unveil institutionalised discrimination against Aboriginal people.
Exhibiting extensively since the 1980s, Watson co-represented Australia at the 1997 Venice Biennale and won the Works on Paper Award at the 23rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in 2006. She was also the recipient of the National Gallery of Victoria’s 2006 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award. In 2011, Watson’s exhibition waterline was shown at the Embassy of Australia in Washington DC, and in 2012, she exhibited in the Sydney Biennale. In 2018, the Art Gallery of New South Wales staged a major exhibition of her work titled the edge of memory. Watson has also received commissions for several public art projects across Australia, including fire and water at Reconciliation Place in Canberra in 2007, ngarunga nangama: calm water dream at 200 George St in Sydney in 2016, and in the same year, tow row for the Gallery of Modern Art’s 10th Anniversary in Brisbane. A significant solo exhibition of Watson’s work, opened in March 2020 at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Her work is currently on display at the TATE Modern, London in the A Year in Art: Australia 1992 exhibition; Palais de Tokyo, Reclaim the Earth exhibition; and the red thread of history at the National Gallery of Australia, touring to Monash University Museum of Art, Victoria in September 2022.
Site & Situation | Public art talk with Judy Watson
Politics of Place
Judy Watson will give her artist perspective on the politics of place in regards to public artwork.
‘Art is political, Indigenous artists are political, Country and Culture is political. As an Aboriginal artist engaging with public artwork I try to research and learn about the location and the people within the local community. I also want to know the layers of history that lie within these spaces. That is what inspires the work that I make.’ Judy Watson 2023
Where | Broadbeach Community Space, Broadbeach Waters
Cost | FREE Event – Bookings Essential – Tickets are Limited
When | Tuesday 23rd May 2023
Time | 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where | Broadbeach Community Space, Broadbeach Waters
IMAGES L to R:
Judy Watson, bara, 2022, public art installation, dimensions variable. Installed at Tarpeian Precinct Lawn, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Photos by Document Photography. Images courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Judy Watson, Installation view, indigo spine, Milani Gallery, 2023. Photo by Carl Warner. Images courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meanjin / Brisbane.
Judy Watson, rivers of the gulf with casuarina, with Dhana Merritt, 2022, indigo, acrylic, graphite, pastel and waxed linen thread on canvas, 215 x173 cm. Installation view, ‘Reclaim the Earth’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Photo by Aurelien Mole. Image courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meanjin / Brisbane.
Questions can be emailed to enquiry@swellsculpture.com.au
Site and Situation is an initiative of City of Gold Coast | Curated by SWELL Sculpture.