Artist Statement - Madi Mercer

There are remains of our old people, artefacts and cultural belongings all across this Continent that are held in glass cases, in colonial institutions and locked away in filing cabinets. These belongings are catalogued, barcoded, and hoarded by people in white gloves. Placed in untouchable displays of Colonial ‘power’ and conquest.

Mysterious. Relic. Unknown.

These belongings cry out for the touch they once knew, by people that lovingly looked after them, created them, or once knew them. There are old people that belong to a community and Country that only knew love and respect, that now sit in the shadows of cardboard boxes on cold metal shelves. Every now and again they see their ‘freedom’ as the subject of fluorescent voyeurism.

Disconnected. Objectified. Unknown.

Killed and marauded for the sake of inhumane colonial barbarism. Contained and held captive in basements, when they should be embraced, remembered and loved by their families. Welcomed back by the land that once knew their footsteps. Allowed to reconnect to their lifesource in their final act on this plane.

Yet, there is blood on their white gloves.