St Andrew’s College is very pleased to announce that Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom is our Artist in Residence for 2021. Now in its fourth year, the St Andrew’s Artist in Residence program offers one creative artist a year the opportunity to focus on developing their own body of work in a residential environment, as well as sharing their skills and experience with College residents and our wider community. Amala is the first conceptual artist to be appointed to the position.
Amala is a solo practitioner who works with her family, community and extensive economic, cultural, political, legal and social networks to inform, lead and drive her practice. She is currently Artist in Residence with the University of Technology and the Sydney Observatory, where her projects include research and development for her new moving work ‘The Proposal’.
Amala’s work is a form of passionate activism, presenting acute and incisive commentary on contemporary socio-political issues. Informed by extensive archival, legislative and first-person research, her work is socially engaged, speaking truth to take a stand against hypocrisy, prejudice, violence and injustice.
Across her practice, Amala proactively seeks to dismantle the Colonial Project (1) by asserting that colonialism is not just disadvantageous for First Peoples but is, in fact, antithetical to the human experience. On a deeper note, Amala intends to make work that speaks to the union of all peoples and to the indivisibility of the human experience that traverses identity, culture, race, class, gender and religious worship.
In 2020 Amala won the Wyndham Art Prize with her work Copywrong and in 2019 The Union became the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander work to be acquired by the Deutsche Bank Collection. Members of our community who have visited Carriageworks may have seen this work displayed as part of The National 2019 New Australian Art exhibition.
Amala’s work is widely awarded, collected, and curated into national exhibitions. She also speaks regularly about her practice and as an arts advocate, including panel presentations at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Redfern Community Centre, and lectures at the National Art School, the National Portrait Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts, and the University of Sydney.
As well as her work on The Proposal, Amala’s Andrew’s residency will include developing a mentoring program both for creative artists at College, and for a select number of emerging artists from the wider community as well. Amala is excited to be joining us as our newest artist at St Andrew’s College and we are thrilled to learn from her wealth of creative talent and substantial experience as a professional artist.
“Artist residencies are a way for an organisation both to support the creation of new works of art, and to create a community with creativity, truth-telling and passion at its heart. Amala’s career and practice suggests that she will bring all these things to St Andrew’s in force, and I feel sure that, on meeting her, you’ll agree.”
- Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith, Head of Creative Arts, St Andrew’s College
“As a regionally based artist, I am thrilled to be awarded the St Andrews Artist in Residence Program. Space for artists in Sydney is rare and this is a fantastic opportunity for myself on both a personal and professional level. I greatly look forward to being part of St Andrews College in engaging with students, staff and the greater community both creatively and socially.”
- Amala Groom, Artist in Residence
We look forward to sharing updates throughout the year. We invite you to view Amala’s work and read more about her extensive artistic experience on her website: amalagroom.com
Amala GROOM
The Union, 2019 (production still)
(1) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines the Colonial Project as emerging ‘when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political sovereignty in spite of geographical dispersion’. The artist uses the term to describe the ongoing invasion of Australia by the Crown through the usurpation of Aboriginal sovereignty by the State.
Amala Groom photo credit: Hamish Ta-mé, 2017.