TOO Episode 147 - Conversation with Director and Contemporary Artist Brook Andrew

In this episode, Adam and Budi speak with the Director and Contemporary Artist Brook Andrew.

Brook's interdisciplinary art practice is driven by the collisions of intertwined narratives, often emerging from the mess of the “Colonial Wuba (hole)”. His practice is grounded in his perspective as an Australian Wiradjuri (Indigenous) and Celtic person. Brook's artworks, museum interventions, research, leadership roles, and curatorial projects challenge the limitations imposed by power structures, historical amnesia, and complicity to center and support Indigenous ways of knowing and being through systemic change and yindyamarra (respect, honor, go slow and responsibility).

Brook was the Artistic Director of the groundbreaking First Nations and artist-led “NIRIN,” the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, 2020. Brook’s recent works include the theatre script GABAN, premiering in 2022 as a video work, and live performances at YOYI! Care, Repair, Heal, the Gropius Bau, Berlin. International advisor to the Sámi Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2022; Enterprise Professor, The University of Melbourne, Associate Researcher, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK; ARC (Australia Research Council grant) with Dr. Brian Martin: ARC Special Research Initiative for Australian Society, History, and Culture: ‘More than a guulany (tree): Aboriginal knowledge systems'. As the Director Reimagining Museums & Collections role with the University of Melbourne, Brook founded BLAK C.O.R.E, a collective driven by First Nations methodologies, research, and cultural practices focusing on walumarra (protection), yindyamarra gunhanha (ongoing respect) and murungidyal (healing in the museum).  

Mentioned in this episode:

GABAN at Art Gallery NSW
House of Slé