Innocence: A Shrine To Melancholia

Artists are often lambasted for indulgently examining, then expressing through a creative medium, moral issues and related social challenges. In the role of ‘mirror’ the interrogation of subject matter reveals concepts and topics all leading to emergent themes and understandings. As an undergraduate student I attended the second year Printmaking Major ‘New Norcia Fieldwork Research’ trip to what I consider to be one of the most violent examples of occupation and site for crimes against humanity in Western Australia, 132 kilometres north of Perth, on the banks of the Moore River. My experience listening to countless stories with Aboriginal people in surrounding communities caused me great sadness as they recounted horrific stories of child sexual abuse, deprivation of liberty and alleged child slavery, which is expressed in this creative installation of printmaking exhibited in July 1997 at Curtin University, School of Art, Bentley Campus in Perth, Western Australia.