Amala Groom
The Union, 2019
Single-channel video, 4K UHD video, colour, sound, 11 mins 11 sec, edition of 5 + 1AP
In The Union, Amala Groom draws upon lived experiences and Aboriginal ceremonies. A red rope representing the miwi (spirit) connects a network of gum trees in a forest near Groom’s home in mid-western New South Wales. Adopting the persona of a displaced and distressed bride, Groom uses the rope to navigate and decolonise Country in a performance that reimagines the wedding ritual as a balancing act between the physical and astral body, where the ‘marriage of self’ is the primary relationship.
– Daniel Mudie Cunningham
Artist Biography
Amala Groom is a Wiradyuri conceptual artist who employs a Wiradyuri based ontology and embodied research-based methodology that considers traditional cultural practice and academia with formal research as a whole of person approach as both inquiry and investigation in the actual and literal sense. Her practice, as a collaboration with her Ancestors is driven by the philosophies of Yindyamarra, Kanyini and Dadirri which lay the foundations for a feeling centred approach in the delicate balancing act that lies between the physical and spiritual worlds. Groom lives and works on Wiradyuri Country in Kelso, NSW.
Represented by blackartprojects (Naarm/Melbourne), Booth I2.
