Wanjun Carpenter, It’s not all roses, 2023. Courtesy: the artist and The Lock-Up, Newcastle.

This new body of work from Wanjun Carpenter explores contemporary complacency and ignorance of First Nations’ issues in modern-day Australia. For the artist, white Australia has consistently and wilfully ignored the trauma of Australia’s colonial invasion and its aftermath, and he views social media and AI technologies, as adding another layer of confusion, lies and distraction.

His strong activist title ‘Look around’ reflects a history of civil rights language and activism, and a critique of popular culture. It is a tradition that includes Gill Scott-Heron’s anthem, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, which critiqued televisual culture in 1971. In Look around (it’s not all roses), Wanjun encourages us to look beyond our screens, to view ourselves and our society from multiple perspectives, and understand the reality of First Nations dispossession, and the fact that they have never ceded sovereignty.

Opening Event: Friday 16 February, 6 – 8pm.

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