Judy Watson
(Australia 1959 – )
- Community
- Brisbane, North-east region
- Language group
- Waanyi, Gulf region
red tides
- Location
- Entrance court
- Further information
The title comes from newspaper reports of red algae blooms appearing in Sydney Harbour because of too much nitrogen in the water. Watson associated the deadly red blooms with whaling and the sites of Aboriginal massacres where the waters turned red with blood. The work was created for the 1997 Biennale in Venice, another water city where the 'sound of the water is everywhere, especially at high tide, you can hear the waves against the buildings, licking history away'. Her work is about 'memories washing over me', whether the tidal flow of stories from her grandmother's country in Queensland or the history of her Sydney Harbour home - the recurring wash of private and public memory.
Peter Emmett, 'Sydney: metropolis, suburb, harbour', 2000
- Place of origin
-
Queensland,
Australia
- Year
- 1997
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- pigment and pastel on canvas
- Dimensions
- 186.0 x 120.0 cm
- Credit
- Mollie Gowing Acquisition Fund for Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1999
- Accession number
- 100.1999
- Copyright
- © Judy Watson. Licensed by Copyright Agency
