“ARKAN & IRBELA Conversation”
Gabi Briggs and Julie Gough
28 Sept → 28 Sept 2024

Two individuals sit on fold-out chairs sitting crossed-legged. One is talking into a microphone and has a hand out gesturing. There is a step stood in between them with two glasses of water. A speaker sits to the far left of one of the individuals. A large maroon wall mural can be seen behind them.
Gabi Briggs in conversation with Julie Gough, West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2024. Photography by Kyle Archie Knight.

Held within ARKAN & IRBELA, this conversation framed Gabi Briggs' work within a broader project, grounded in her familial connection to Anaiwan Country and formalised by her PhD research.

ARKAN & IRBELA takes the form of a film articulating Anaiwan Skinship practices, and Gabi's preparation for a historic 80-100km walk her ancestors undertook from Ingelba Aboriginal Reserve to the Armidale Showground.

The artists engaged with land ownership and access. Julie Gough presented a nuanced work around these questions for the 2022 Biennale of Sydney: Rivus.

A transcript of this conversation will be published in the coming weeks.

Two individuals sit in a gallery space crossed-legged on two folding chairs. There is a large maroon wall mural covering 2-3 walls of the gallery space. The people are lit up by two bright lights. There are various yellow cushions on the floor. A crowd of people sit in front of them on folding chairs listening intently.
Two people sitting on chairs with a table in-between holding glasses of water, one person speaking into microphone. Maroon abstract painting displayed on the wall behind them and yellow cushions in front of them on the wood floor.
Audiences listening to Gabi Briggs in conversation with Julie Gough, West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2024. Photography by Kyle Archie Knight.

Gabi Briggs is an Anaiwan Gedyura artist, researcher, weaver, and community organiser. Briggs engages with the complexities of race, power, and truth-telling, seeking to restore Indigenous sovereignty and enact self-determination. Her practice reflects a commitment to returning back to Indigenous knowledges and addresses pressing issues like the climate crisis.

Julie Gough is a Trawlwoolway artist, writer and curator. Her work reveals and re-presents conflicting and subsumed histories, legacies and impacts of colonisation, often reflecting on her family's experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Since 1994, Gough has exhibited in over 200 exhibitions including Shadow Spirit, 2023; Biennale of Sydney, 2022/2006; TARNANTHI, 2021/2017; Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2018/1998; and the first iteration of The National: Australian Art Now, 2017.

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Seven people weaving in a dimly lit room around a green table. Two standing and five sitting with a basket and four candles on the table.

“ARKAN & IRBELA”
Gabi Briggs
7 Sept → 10 Nov 2024