Adopted
5 Oct 2022 - 6 Apr 2023
Dax Centre
“Adoption is a heavily loaded and contested practice in contemporary Australia. Speaking broadly, adoption is the legal process and legal transfer of a child from their birth family (or legal guardian) into the care of the adoptive parent(s).1 Language around adoption is, at times, clumsy and dated, and is unable to encompass the range of emotions and experiences of those affected by adoption. It should be no surprise that there is no singular, homogeneous or common experience of adoption. This is echoed by the auto-ethnographic narratives expressed in the artwork of the four artists in this exhibition: Peter Waples-Crowe, Lisa Waup, Ebony Hickey and Weniki Hensch.
In the work of these artists, a range of complex narratives emerge: of marginalisation – at times, a double marginalisation, such as being queer and Aboriginal, as seen in the works of respected Indigenous queer Elder Peter Waples-Crowe – or of the ongoing challenge in piecing together Lost, Stolen and Hidden intergenerational stories that have been intentionally and forcibly silenced through the processes of colonisation,2 such as in the work of mixed cultural and First Peoples multidisciplinary artist, curator and mother Lisa Waup. Stories of connecting to culture through investigating mediums and ancestral objects within institutional collections are explored in the work of Papua New Guinean–born multidisciplinary artist Weniki Hensch.”
— Excerpt Adoption Catalogue, Dr Kirsten Lyttle / 25 July 2022