KATIE WEST ‘Strangers & Those We Hold Dear’ at Monash Art, Design and Architecture Gallery

Katie West is a Yindjibarndi woman who combines naturally dyed textiles, installation and social practice to formulate ways to practice custodianship in still-colonised and ecologically compromised contexts. West’s work ‘warna (ground)’ is featured in a group show curated by Louise Sweetman, ‘Strangers & Those We Hold Dear’, at the MADA Gallery from 5 – 26 October.

The exhibition balances on the tenuous and hopeful thought that we have the responsibility to be attentive to our actions and interactions with each other. It turns on the idea that artworks can be spaces of hope, taking the position that our everyday actions—be it environmentally, socially, culturally, politically—make a difference, even if we cannot see or know the impact.