13 April – 30 April 2017
107 Window Box
The 107 Window Box curators believe that art should exist as a dynamic part of its local social ecosystem.
Ariel Ruby’s practice explores a range of materials and subjects, often employing ethnographic strategies to produce varied reflective visual outcomes with a strong intent.
Ariel Ruby’s installation Shit Talk/Real Talk involved an installation of a lenticular photograph with a decal of text that engaged directly with ‘the slow but decided neglect and disruption of The Block, and subsequent gentrification of Redfern has led to the dispersal and displacement of Aboriginal people and residents’ (Ruby).
The text component of her work “I want to find a meaning…just to stay alive…another day, another time” is a direct transcription of words that were tagged on the derelict building site of Murawina childcare centre on Eveleigh St in Redfern when Ruby noticed them on the 7th October 2015. Murawina began in 1972 in Hollis Park, Newtown, when a group of Aboriginal mothers began providing meals to young children. By 1974 the group had expanded into a childcare centre, and purchased land on Eveleigh St in Redfern.
Palmese states that ‘the Block has always been a meeting place for Indigenous Australians, becoming a hub for community, a vital part of identity, and a place that people could call home. The media has not been there when it comes to the reality of life and community needs in Redfern, and our knowledge of the historic and contemporary is often based on lies formed through misguided and skewed information presented as fact. The Block was, and should remain, the beating black heart and spirit of Redfern. While we now build our paradise here, it is our responsibility to make choices to be informed and engaged, to seek and question knowledge with open eyes, open ears, and an open mind.’
http://www.107.org.au/event/ariel-ruby/
