The image is not nothing (Concrete Archives)

A collaboration between Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce and Melbourne based artist Lisa Radford, The image is not nothing (Concrete Archive) examines the on-going effects of colonisation on Aboriginal people.

Between 1956 and 1963, the British conducted Nuclear Tests at Maralinga, South Australia. For several years Yhonnie Scarce has returned to Woomera and Maralinga in order to conceptualise and produce works that act as a memorial to the unspoken displacement and genocide of Aboriginal people as a result of these tests. In this context, Maralinga is a site for beginning to consider the role of memorialisation and how it might be conceptualised and actualised. Lead by artists, The image is not nothing (Concrete Archive) asks how we can address the cultural amnesia which obfuscates if not renders invisible the the Genocide of Aboriginal people in Australia since colonisation in order to address the impact this has had on our shared experiences, conflicts and representations of citizenship.

An evolving project documenting the shared experiences of two women: one Aboriginal, the other non-Aboriginal, Concrete  Archives has involved fieldwork to local and international sites of nuclear colonisation, genocide and memorialisation, an editorial project with Art + Australia online and a major curatorial project that debuted at ACE Open (ADL) and travelled to the VCA (MEL) — this digital, oral and exhibition "archive" includes historical and contemporary works making materially present the loss.


Link to the archive


Artists: Mareike Bernien and Kerstin Schroedinger (DE), Kumanara Boogar (Yalata, AU), Phil Collins (DE), Megan Cope (Quandamooka), Trent Crawford(Naarm, AU), Matthew Davis (AU), Pam Diment (Ceduna, AU), Korpys/Löffler (DE), Rosemary Laing (AU), Hayley Millar-Baker (AU), Sanja Pahoki(Woiwurrung, AU), Warren Paul (Ebay) (Yalata, AU), Ashley Perry(Quandamooka), Nina Sanadze (AU), Jelena Telecki (AU), Unbound Collective (Kaurna Yarta, AU), and Judy Watson (Waanyi, AU).

Project  assistant:  Ashley Perry

Project leads