In 2003 I was awarded a residency in Hill End by the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. I stayed at the Murray Cottage for a month where I produced the work Red Ore.
The work was inspired by the layered histories of Hill End. Parallels were drawn between Hill End as a gold rush town, home of Aboriginal Australians and the introduction of Christianity post colonisation. As materials that function as mediums to spiritual enlightenment, this work explores the sacred qualities of ochre in Australian Aboriginal culture and the close link between gold and the devine in western traditions.
Image: Red Ore, 2003