Commissioned by Metro Tunnel Creative Program

Curator - Global Art Projects

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Swanston St (at A'Beckett St) and Swanston St (at Franklin St), Melbourne

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Kelly is an important visual artist working in regional Victoria.  Her arts practice explores various aspects of both her Aboriginal (Wergaia/Wemba Wemba) and Greek heritage.

 

The two large artwork hoardings presented on Swanston St are adaptions of her award-winning artwork, Benim Wile: To cover over with possum blanket, which draws on the imagery of stitched possum pelts to create imaginary blankets which are now metaphorically covering parts of the city.

 

Kelly has been working with possum skins and possum skin imagery in her artworks for many years.  From her early work recreating real possum skin cloaks, to her more recent artworks using screen printing and digital imagery of possum fur, working with the imagery of possum fur in her printmaking and installation artworks has allowed Kelly to reconnect and reclaim aspects of her Indigenous heritage.

 

Kelly’s artistic practice has drawn on research into historic photographic images of Koorie people from across Victoria wearing possum skin cloaks.  Possum skin cloaks had a very important role in traditional Aboriginal societies, as both a means of keeping dry and warm, but also as an important cultural item, often incorporating imagery and markings of cultural significance, and handed down within families over generations.   

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This work is based on Kelly’s original artwork that won the Metro Tunnel Creative Program 2D Award at Koorie Heritage Trust as part of the 2018 Koorie Art Show.

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