KELOID #6 - PARLOUR

 

PARLOUR was an installation in the Lindsay Family Parlour at the Art Gallery of Ballarat that has held the Victorian furniture, objects and memorabilia of a well known Australian artistic family since 1967.

 

Using this classic Victorian space megan evans explored her colonial footprint by examining the impact of colonisation through the lens of a settler within occupied space. She unpacks that identity by through inserting her own family portraits and dismembered furniture, referencing the brutal history of early Australia. 

 

“Whilst my family history in this country can be traced back to the early 1800's, my late husband’s Aboriginal culture is far more ancient. The establishment of my family in Australia took place at the expense of his.”

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PERFORMING Victoriana

During Heritage week the artist was present in the installation in a performative way, dressed in a replica of her great Grandmothers Victorian dress. She acted out the tradition of Victorian women of that age, embroidering in the parlour, while their men were out occupying the land by any means possible. Her embroidery is an image of a skull that is the size and shape of her own head and a pair to the beaded skull in the fire shield.

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This work followed her work in SQUATTERS AND SAVAGES held the previous year in the same gallery

 

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