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Lua Pellegrini, ‘Behind Curtains’ 2023. Silk, cotton, sandstone, airdry clay, eucalyptus, soil tea. 220 x 300cm. Image courtesy: the artist. Eucalyptus used with permission from Darug Traditional Owners.

Behind curtains is a site-responsive work acting a reclamation of place and history through the process of soiling, staining and considered engagement with colonial institution Parramatta Girls Home, part of The Female Factory precinct on Darug Country. This work contemplates memory of place, considering experiences of my great-grandmother and grandmother when taken to colonial welfare institutions as part of The Stolen Generations including Parramatta Girls Home. Inspired by recounts of my grandmother who retains the potent feeling of looking through colonial floral motif curtains to see if her family were coming to bring her home.

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Acknowledgement of Country

UNSW School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.

We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.