JUDY WATSON | Queensland Institute of Medical Research

Judy Watson: water memory

 

Special commission/permanent installation

 

Artist Judy Watson aims to teach and enthral – and her latest two-storey artwork, "Water Memory", in the foyer of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, achieves both. A lesson in Brisbane's Aboriginal history and its medical beginnings, the multi-layered digi-glass transparency and video piece begins with the story of the land near the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds and the Royal Brisbane Hospital, or "Barrambin".

"Water Memory" includes a large image of a heavily scarred Aboriginal man, most likely originally photographed by pioneering scientist Joseph Bancroft. In Aboriginal culture, scars on a man's torso show his place in the Aboriginal community.

Learn more about the commission here.

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