19 Aug Damien Shen | Ballarat International Foto Biennale

Damien Shen’s new series of work Still life after Penn, will be featured in the 2017 Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

Still life after Penn explores histories of disrespecting and degrading human remains, including the stealing of remains from graves and hospital morgues by anthropologists and physicians.

‘Still life after Penn is a complex interrogation of many things. It seeks to begin dialogues about what is right and what is wrong, about the living and the dead, and the spaces in between, while simultaneously interrogating the practices of museums historically and in the here and now… the remains of Shen’s ancestors still sit in boxes within the collection stores of museums here in Australia and abroad, waiting to be returned to their homelands’ 

– Glen Isenger-Pilkington, 2017

Damien Shen will feature among seventeen contemporary Indigenous photographers in the exhibition, titled ‘TELL’, presented by The Ballarat International Foto Biennale and ucrated by Jessica Clark.’TELL’, opens Saturday 19 August at 7:30 pm and runs until the 17 September.