Kent Morris’ Barkindji Blue Sky - Ancestral Connections launches to the public on the UTS Broadway Screen on Tuesday 3 August, 2021. Join us for a conversation with Kent Morris, Clothilde Bullen (Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections and Exhibitions) and Nici Cumpston (Artistic Director Tarnanthi, Curator Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at Art Gallery of South Australia), moderated by journalist Daniel Browning, to mark the launch of our latest major digital commission.

Barkindji Blue Sky – Ancestral Connections is a 14 minute and 45 second video composed from a series of images taken of the large telecommunications tower on Kurnu Barkindji country, in the centre of Bourke NSW, during a family reunion on the artist’s ancestral homeland. It incorporates the interactions of kiinki (corellas) as they flew around and perched on the surrounding antenna dishes and panel antennas.

The kiinki reflect the important Barkindji Ancestral constellation story of two sisters called kiinki’ngulu, two white cockatoos (corellas) in the sky, representing the clouds of Magellan. This story connects Barkindji people to their ancestors and the cosmos in a cultural continuum of shared knowledge that reinforces spiritual cohesion and connection.

The forms and technologies of the built environment are re-imagined and reshaped through a First Nations lens to reflect the long history of Indigenous cultures and knowledges and to reaffirm presence, identity and connectivity.

The UTS Broadway Screen is a 12 metre digital screen dedicated to digital art by Australian artists. Since 2020, the program has commissioned new digital work by leading Australian artists including Daniel Crooks, Grant Stevens, Patrina Munuŋgurr and Ishmael Marika of The Mulka Project, and Cigdem Aydemir. The Broadway Screen in located in UTS Central, a public-facing student and faculty space at the heart of the UTS campus.

Please register so we can ensure safe distancing in line with NSW Health advice.