Peta Clancy
(Bangerang, b. 1970, Australia. Lives and works in Melbourne)

Dr Peta Clancy is a descendent of the Bangerang people from south-eastern Australia. Through her photographic work, she explores the hidden histories of colonisation and events that threatened the survival of her ancestors. Clancy frequently layers, re-photographs and manually manipulates photographic prints to reconstruct and lay bare these otherwise obscured histories in a contemporary setting.

Confluence is a body of work created in response to historic photographic records, held in the State Library Victoria’s collection, taken where the Merri Creek and the Birrarung meet. The site is a culturally significant part of Country for the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, with ancient rock formations between 100 and 400 million years old. In the 1970s the trajectory of the waterway was altered during the development of Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway. In the same way these earthworks took place with little regard for their cultural and environmental importance for the Wurundjeri people, Clancy considers her historic source material as exemplifying the objectifying colonialist lens, depicting the land as devoid of its deeply embedded significance.

Developed in consultation with Traditional Custodians, Confluence explores history and cultural memory by meaningfully interacting with Country over time. Clancy employs a performative process, returning to the same location with large-scale prints photographed using a large-format film camera. On Country, these photographs are attached to a frame, the print cut into and then re-photographed. With its many time frames and perspectives, Confluence evokes the experience of Aboriginal people observing Country. In this way, Confluence calls into question the ability of the photographic form to document and divulge narratives of place.

Since the early 2000s, Clancy has exhibited extensively in solo and group settings in Australia and internationally. In 2017 she was curatorial advisor for Science Gallery Melbourne’s season Blood, and in 2018 she was awarded the 2018 Fostering Koorie Art and Culture and the Koorie Heritage Trust Residency Grant funded by the Indigenous Languages and Arts Program. She is Associate Dean, Indigenous, at MADA (Monash Art, Design and Architecture) at Monash University.