The exhibition reflects on themes of colonisation, journeys - by ships and other forms across the ocean - the landscape, cultural practices and knowledge...
Kyra Mancktelow is included in Ripples through Time with her work Unconstitutional Love II, 2025, recently acquired by Artspace Mackay.
Unconstitutional Love || is a wedding dress: a powerful symbol of union, devotion, and tradition. As a garment imbued with generations of cultural significance Mancktelow challenges us to look beyond the surface, urging us to consider the deeper histories woven into the fabric of this seemingly familiar form.
As a stark reminder of the enduring legacy of colonial control over First Nations lives, Indigenous Australians could only marry with government permission up until the 1960s. Through this textile work, Mancktelow extends her inquiry into the historical significance of garments in Australia, interrogating how fabric and fashion function as both instruments of oppression and markers of resilience. The is not merely an object; it is a statement – a reclamation of agency in culture and identity. Carefully adapting traditional materials and techniques, Kyra’s works assert the continuation of Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty, an act of resistance against historical erasure. With this work, Mancktelow honours her family, whose experiences of love were constrained by the oppressive structures of colonial governance.
Ripples Through Time explores the relationship between water and time, and the importance of water in creating connections in our communities, cultures, journeys, landscapes, plants and animals across our past, present and future.
Featuring works from the Mackay Regional Council Contemporary Indigenous Art Collection, this exhibition reflects on such themes as colonisation, journeys (by ships and other forms across the ocean), the landscape, cultural practices and knowledge. These works reflect on such themes as colonisation, journeys (by ship and other forms across the ocean), the landscape, cultural practices and knowledge. Although each work tells a different story, they are all connected by the depictions and/or role that time and water play within their narrative.
