ARKAN & IRBELA

By Gabi Briggs

West Space 7 Sep → 9 Nov 2024

Production Manager: Amy Hamond

West Space is proud to present the first filmic work by Melbourne-based, Anaiwan Gedyura artist Gabi Briggs as part of our 2024 Commission series.

Nurturing the legacy of her late nan Patsy Cohen’s research – formalised in Patsy’s 1990 book Ingelbah and the Five Black Matriarchs – ARKAN & IRBELA sees the gallery transformed into a location for the two women to dialogue across time and space, film and print publishing.

ARKAN & IRBELA presents coded knowledge and stories from their family's history on Anaiwan Country, Northern New South Wales. Central to this is the Anaiwan Skinship System – a network of complex relations that define an individual’s responsibilities and relationships to Community and Country, and from which Blak, Anaiwan femininity emerges. The work honours the manifestations of reality, identity and ethics in the Skinship System, that are inherently derived from Country and the relations it sustains.

Structured along conversations and relational moments with family members, ARKAN & IRBELA materialises Anaiwan knowledge within a Story of resurgence, demonstrating the power of cultivating an inter-generational code of ethics within an ongoing relationship to Place. Patsy Cohen generated the research for her book by walking Country with family and Community, revitalising cultural knowledge and story through Place-based memory. ARKAN & IRBELA engages in a non-linear dialogue with her methodology and intention, by articulating how their family is embedded within the matrix of Anaiwan Country.

Both Briggs’ and Cohen’s research constitute a continued connection to Country, family and culture. By anchoring her practice of Anaiwan cultural revitalisation through that of her nan’s, ARKAN & IRBELA embodies the sentiment expressed by Wakka Wakka and Kombumerri Professor Aunty Mary Graham: ‘I am located, therefore I am’.

Gabi Briggs is an Anaiwan Gedyura artist, researcher, weaver, and community organiser. Gabi engages with the complexities of race, power, and truth-telling through her art, seeking to restore Indigenous sovereignty and enact self-determination. Her practice reflects a commitment to returning back to Indigenous knowledges and addresses pressing issues like the climate crisis.