CEED Healing
Exhibition
So I Could Find My Way - Song Lines, K. & S. Reys 2021
So I Could Find My Way - K. & S. Reys 2021
Artist Statement: Guurrbi Warra – Deep Listening on Country Exhibition
The artists' work Karen Reys and Susan Reys celebrates their cultural identity and challenges a history that has rendered Aboriginal people absent (Slater, 2014, pp. 359).
The artists' practice sees an exploration of their cultural and spiritual identity. In the collaborative exhibition titled 'Gurrbbi Warra - Deep Listening on Country' the sisters Karen and Susan Reys, as fifth generations removed from their family's ancestral land, examine their spiritual connection to this land.
Coming Full Circle: Looking for Culture & Foreigner in my own Land
The sculpture 'Coming Full Circle' is the centre-piece in this exhibition. The sisters tune in with guidance and follow no matter what they do to fulfil their souls life purpose. The Aboriginal spiritual practice that is listening deeply to self, others and the environment, over a twenty-year art practice has helped the sisters to establish a true sense of place and belonging. Moving through each of the challenges presented to a place of inner healing and wholeness.
The artworks in the exhibition share the spiritual stories of Karen and Susan's connection to Darrba Warra to the Songlines that is their birth rite on Country. The contemporary stories come from their lived experiences that intertwine and connect them back to the Dreaming.
The dreams, visions, epiphanies and spiritual awakenings told in the landscape trace the lives of family and histories over the generations. The three stories central to the exhibition are the Dreaming of 'Three Sisters', Mother's Love', and 'Little Bird' about a lost soul that didn't know how to fly. The little bird can represent anyone of us. The little bird had lost its soul - its Dreaming. It didn't know who it was, why it was here or its purpose for being. The very centre of its existence had been destroyed. The little bird travels over many seasons to find out that the most powerful way of self-connection is through its spirit.
The title of art works in the exhibitions are songs by Enya, Boy Zone and Uncle Bob Randall. For the artists, the lyrics carry sacred messages that over time has helped them to connect spiritually and to find their way back home.
Artwork & Song: No Matter What - Boy Zone
The journey of the 'Three Sisters' continues to unfold today. They are beginning to document their stories for the preservation of their culture and for future generations.
Slater, L. (2004). 'Calling our Spirits Home': Indigenous cultural festivals and the making of a good life.' Retrieved from ‘Calling our Spirits home’: Indigenous cultural festivals and the making of a good life (uow.edu.au)
