8 June – 28 July (opening night 7 June, 6pm) @ FORM Gallery, 357 Murray St, Perth ·
Presented by FORM ·

‘People tend to think of it (Dreaming) as something distant and gone, like a dream, it didn’t happen. But when you’re living it, it transcends any kind of idea that dreaming isn’t here, or gone’ – Charmaine Green, Artist, Geraldton

DREAM MINE TIME brings together a series of leading, contemporary Indigenous artists from across Western Australia whose works in some way attest the reality of a living and a modern Dreaming.

Featuring new video work, sculpture, print media and painting, senior artists illuminate ancient stories that have been adapted in recent years to incorporate the shifts brought on by post-colonial industry. Their works show alongside examples of new Dreaming stories, birthed and shared by a younger generation of artists.

The word ‘Dreamtime’ itself is a late 19th century attempt by European anthropologists to translate the fullness of Aboriginal cosmology into the English vernacular. DREAM MINE TIME explores the complexities of what ‘Dreamtime’ means for these artists, in 2018, within their respective regions of a vast state. The artworks on show speak of the unique relationship each artist holds with their Country’s Dreaming, and how these connections infuse the everyday.

A wealth of some of the oldest stories in human history are interwoven with the Western Australian landscape, kept alive for more than 60,000 years through oral traditions of story-telling. As colonisation and the industries it brought have literally reconfigured the earth over the course of some 200 years, many of the early creation stories have come to incorporate post-colonial subject matter – adaptations necessary for their own survival. This exhibition presents examples of this local phenomenon – celebrating the relevance of these evolving cultural narratives that are unparalleled in their spanning of time.

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Image: Clifton Mack, Rainbow Serpent, 2017, acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of Yinjaa-Barni Art and Bewley Shaylor.