Brenda L Croft exhibits a mixed media installation in hand/made/held/ground, 2019, which metaphysically maps Croft’s patrilineal relationship to Country, reimagining customary objects jimpila (spearhead) and kurrwa (stone axe), originally created on Gurindji homelands, alongside eight works from the artist’s Made in Australia II series, 2018, drawn from the CMAG collection.
Made in Australia II was produced by Brenda L. Croft to honour her mother Dorothy Jean Croft (1938–2010), a non-Indigenous woman who broke from suburban convention in Sydney and found love with a Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra man, Joseph Croft, who she married and raised a family with, living in numerous regions of Australia, including Canberra. Croft celebrates her mother’s story by scaling up her original 1950s–60s vividly coloured 35mm Cibachrome slides to giant size photographic prints that speak to the strength and potency of her parent’s relationship which played out quietly in this heart of the nation.
Together these series bring Croft’s patrilinear and matrilinear stories to the surface; lives impacted by the stolen generations; returning to traditional homelands; women’s independence; and the breaking of class and racial barriers.
Brenda L Croft, Kurrwa (stone axehead) (black on red), 2017-21, glass components: kiln cast crystal, blackwood crystal, red gaffer lead crystal, display case: corten steel, stainless steel, Sikaflex, electrical wire, 12 volt globe, dimensions variable. © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australian Capital Territory
Canberra Museum and Gallery
29 October 2021 to 22 January 2022
Australian Capital Territory
