Transposing surface and transforming material
Join us at the MADA Gallery for a PhD exhibition by Kenzee Patterson.
This practice-led research project investigates a confluence of material and bodily trajectories that emanate from the early colonisation of Australia and continue to circulate through the present settler-colony. Specifically, he explores the social, economic and political conditions that led to the transportation of their convict ancestors to the colony of New South Wales in the early nineteenth century. The transportation of these ancestors was coterminous with the arrival of certain objects produced through British colonisation, extraction and trade. Within this PhD, an exploration of his familial connections and these corresponding objects is combined with historical research, place-based inquiry and speculative narratives to examine how past events continue to shape current Indigenous-settler relations in Australia.
He employs the techniques of scanning and casting as methodologies that amplify visual and haptic sensory encounters while engaging with specific objects that correspond with the movements and actions of their ancestors. He couples these methodologies with a conceptual framework that explores the echo as a recursive effect that includes sonic resonances as well as extending to encompass physical, spatial and temporal reverberations. Structured light scanning, digital manufacturing techniques, manual modelling and casting processes are used to bring geographically remote objects into physical proximity through studio-based practice. These processes of making allow for reiterations of surfaces and forms that carry an echoing presence of the past experiences of his ancestors.
Event Details
- Date:
- 5 September 2026 at 12:00 pm – 12 September 2026 at 5:00 pm
- Venue:
- MADA Gallery, Building D, Caulfield campus
- Categories:
- Fine Art; Gallery / Exhibition; Gallery: MADA Gallery
Description
Join us at the MADA Gallery for a PhD exhibition by Kenzee Patterson.
This practice-led research project investigates a confluence of material and bodily trajectories that emanate from the early colonisation of Australia and continue to circulate through the present settler-colony. Specifically, he explores the social, economic and political conditions that led to the transportation of their convict ancestors to the colony of New South Wales in the early nineteenth century. The transportation of these ancestors was coterminous with the arrival of certain objects produced through British colonisation, extraction and trade. Within this PhD, an exploration of his familial connections and these corresponding objects is combined with historical research, place-based inquiry and speculative narratives to examine how past events continue to shape current Indigenous-settler relations in Australia.
He employs the techniques of scanning and casting as methodologies that amplify visual and haptic sensory encounters while engaging with specific objects that correspond with the movements and actions of their ancestors. He couples these methodologies with a conceptual framework that explores the echo as a recursive effect that includes sonic resonances as well as extending to encompass physical, spatial and temporal reverberations. Structured light scanning, digital manufacturing techniques, manual modelling and casting processes are used to bring geographically remote objects into physical proximity through studio-based practice. These processes of making allow for reiterations of surfaces and forms that carry an echoing presence of the past experiences of his ancestors.