Yarra Billabong, Kew II 1975

Editor: So, this is Fred Williams' "Yarra Billabong, Kew II." It’s a monochromatic print, evoking a sense of starkness. What stands out to you in this work? Curator: Consider the historical context. Williams painted a landscape already marked by colonial settlement. How does his abstracted style either erase or perhaps subtly acknowledge the history of displacement and environmental change tied to that landscape? Editor: That's a perspective I hadn’t considered. The abstraction could be a way of both representing and obscuring the past. Curator: Precisely. Does this abstraction serve to erase Indigenous presence, or does it allow space for imagining alternative narratives within the landscape? What do you think? Editor: I see what you mean. It's a complex tension between representation and erasure that the work embodies. Thanks!