Owiebuh

On Indigeneity and Rurality

I’m a biracial woman, I have Gomeroi heritage on my father’s side and my mother is Danish. Being raised in a rural area is a big part of my art, it informs the context and art form which I’m working with.

 I haven’t always created art that was centred around my race and identity. I love dichotomies and working with two very different things. What is in between is always the most interesting part and what I dissect in my art.

 My practice centres around colonialism, colonial masculinity, patriotism and coexistence. Previously, I used to actively avoid weaving my culture into the art I made out of fear; fear of having expectations placed on me. I shied away from my culture and I was somewhat ashamed. Now that I’m more liberated and understand how important my Indigeneity is, I realised my culture was always in the art I made. It was always there. 

I’m really embracing the fact that I have a voice and that I can not only use it, but be loud and outwardly critical of colonialism. The culture I grew up in didn’t allow me to do that. 

On Inspiration

  I look to a lot of pop culture, even though I’m being critical in my art. My work is often quite humorous. I think it’s important to be relevant and approachable. I recently made a piece  that was a reference to Charli XCX’s “Brat”, other visuals such as the Union Jack will often weave its way into the work I create. 

I actually look at a lot of right-wing politics and media too. I love ridiculing it all. The idea of political views and the American elections is quite interesting. I think a lot about how symbols and visuals can be used to push an agenda. I use pop culture in that sense too, to engage and convey a message.

On Confrontation

I have never been a confrontational person. I think it comes with having to coexist within a world where your culture is hard to comprehend. It’s hard– I don’t want to ever speak out. I’ve been in spaces where Australia day would be celebrated and I could never really infer that the glorification of genocide was something I didn’t agree with. I had never been outwardly political or critical of Australia’s values. It was only until I started my honours year at UNSW that I was forced to dig deeper. I was also very cautious of not being pushed into a box of being an ‘Indigenous artist’.  I did eventually realise that my identity did matter and it shaped the way I see things and navigate the world. I have experiences other people don’t have.

I started looking into it, that being, the culture I grew up in and the rural area i which I was raised in. In particular, I started to think of the Australian flag and how it is everywhere. It’s hanging in yards and schools. It’s quite normalised back home.

On Form & Accessibility

I started off as a painter, the sculptural works I create are newer. Mixing the two is quite immersive and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it all. I work very intuitively, I have a sort of idea and work around it. Visually, I love Gordon Hookey who is an Aboriginal artist who does a lot of work with protest signs. His work is often critical whilst also being satirical. 

My best works are often the ones I create on a whim. I use cardboard to align myself with the notion of protesting. Graffiti is also something that I use, not just for the visual appeal of it, but also because graffiti is used to claim a space through tags.


The materials I use are also very accessible, I don’t really go out and buy expensive items, the things I use are quite cheap and affordable which ties into the theme of accessibility I push within the art itself. It’s all very spontaneous and I don’t really think much about what my art will look like in a traditional white cube gallery. I never think about where my work will end up. 

On Political Resistance and Disconnection

Everything I do is innately political because of who I am and I’ve started to lean into it that. However, my art is very personal and based on my own experiences. I acknowledge that I am not a voice for everyone. I still have a lot of disconnection from my heritage and culture which is due to only physical distance, but also to colonisation. Even though I’m not always directly making work about my family, they’re still apart of my heritage. My heritage is itself part of my work. There’s a lot I’m personally deconstructing which can be intense. 


Going back to political resistance, disrespecting Australian symbols is quite dangerous. In art school, it's seen as moving, but the reality is, it’s quite terrifying. It’s always lingering in the back of my head. I love the irony of owning an Australian flag and embedding the Southern Cross within the pieces I make. I exist within a country that celebrates the diminishing of my people– I try to balance  people enjoy my art with my criticism. I haven’t mastered this skill yet.

On Duality

Duality is something I’m always thinking about. There’s always two things clashing. I was raised in a rural area but live in metropolitan Sydney. I’m always thinking about the duality between rural and urban areas. I’m also biracial, there’s that clash of Blak and white culture. I reflect these dualities within the art I create.