Arts House and Campbelltown Arts Centre acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands we work on, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples and the Dharawal people. We extend our respect to Elders past, present and future, while respecting Custodians of the vast Nations our digital platforms reach. We extend this acknowledgement to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, audiences and communities.
Crop mark design element
Crop mark design element

BLEED Reference Group Works
– The Island by Joel Spring

About

In 1774 Captain James Cook charted an island located between what is now called New Caledonia and the Queensland coast, using it as a navigational point to direct the course of his voyage to the place now known as Australia. Sandy Island was drawn and redrawn in maps and reproduced in digital charts until 2014 when it was officially Undiscovered.

This fictional object is both the site and the diagram used to express a series of ideas and themes the stem from the BLEED reference experience, as artist Joel Spring tells a story of a fictional island, exploring how colonialism, surveillance networks and bodies arrive on the beach.

Tracing the ways processes of maintenance and restoration ensure the literal uploading and copying of colonial infrastructures to the internet, Spring explores narratives of resistance and protest, alongside others of mass surveillance and extractive practices to demonstrate that the ability to narrate and power to block other narratives is very important. Forcing those to overhear and listen in. Colonialism places strict limitations of resource acquisition for communities – if we understand ‘hearing’ to be a resource – this too is operational in colonisation.

The BLEED ECHO Reference Group projects are original artworks responding to and ricocheting from the five artist projects and curatorial conversations of BLEED.

Premiere status

World Premiere

Presented by

  • Presented by Arts Houseand Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of BLEED 2020

Artistic Credits

  • Lead artist: Joel Spring
  •  
  •  
  • With respect to an ongoing process attempting to articulate a language of resistance within particular academic conventions. The artist has chosen to only reference those seen as key to the conceptual development of the work at large. to offer a different chain of information.
  •  
  • In Order of appearance:
  • Albert Namatjira (1955) Glen Helen Gorge from the south looking north, National Gallery of Australia, Namatjira Legacy Trust

    Dorothy Napangardi (2004) Sandhills, Museum of Contemporary Art

    Basically Black (1973) writ. Jim Crawford, Ken Horler, John O’Grady, Gary Foley and Bob Maza.dir. Nicolas R. Parsons. perf. Aileen Corpus, Bindi Williams, Zac Martin, Gary Foley, Bob Maza. ABC

    Aileen Moreton-Robinson (2011) Bodies That Matter: Performing White Possession on the Beach. American Indian Culture and Research Journal: 2011, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 57-72.

Supported by

  • BLEED is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, City of Campbelltown through Campbelltown Arts Centre and City of Melbourne through Arts House.

Schedule

From August 10
Duration: 7mins

Watch

Pre-recorded sound and video.
This work is temporarily unavailable

Bios

Joel Spring

Joel Spring is a Wiradjuri man raised between Redfern and Alice Springs. A Sydney-based architecture graduate, he is an interdisciplinary artist working between solo works and Future Method studio. Working across research, activism, architecture, and broadcasting, he currently focuses on the contested narratives of Sydney’s and Australia’s urban culture and Indigenous history in the face of ongoing colonisation. Joel has experience creating, producing, recording radio/podcasts and other sonic work.

Warnings

  • Viewer warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program contains images and voices of people who have deceased.
Crop mark design element
Crop mark design element
Skip to content
Visit BLEED 2024