On Country/In Residence

In October 2024, the artists Gretel Taylor, Laki Sideris, Gülsen Özer, Tammy Wong Hulbert, Jill Orr, Mandy Nicholson, Aarti Jadu and Rebecca Murray participated in On Country/In Residence, conceived and facilitated by BodyPlaceProject for the inaugural ngurrak barring artist residency. Over their 3-day, 40 km walk across goranwarrabil (the Dandenong Ranges), the artists shared their individual practices and approaches to place—a mobile and immersive form of professional development. A key consideration of this creative exchange was to consider what it means to ‘listen to Country’ from each of their diverse perspectives.

As Gretel Taylor describes:

We traced the mountain range’s gradients and gullies through shifting light and temperature, absorbed its changing atmospheres, and observed the life within its folds. Some of us joined in the dance of its movements and textures and sung from and to the mountain. Others gathered literal and poetic impressions. 

Following the residency, the artists developed their responses and made new work for the exhibition ngurrak-al marram-u / body of the mountain at Burrinja Gallery (24 May– 13 July 2025), curated by Gretel Taylor with Gülsen Özer and Wurundjeri Custodian and artist Mandy Nicholson who gave the exhibition its Woiwurrung title.

The works featured in the exhibition gestured to traditions of walking as art, eco-performance as activism, and durational and socially engaged practices. From close-range experiential encounters with the forest to reflections on global contexts from the perspective of the mountain, the exhibition advocated for intercultural and interspecies dialogue in an era of escalating precarity.

To learn more visit BodyPlaceProject’s website:

On Country/In Residence

ngurrak-al marram-u / body of the mountain

On Country/In Residence and ngurrak-al marram-u / body of the mountain were proudly supported by Yarra Ranges Council through an Arts and Heritage grant and ngurrak barring. These projects were also assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

IMAGES:

1. On Day 1 of the residency, the artists walked the ngurrak barring trails from Kalorama to Sassafras.

2. Aarti Jadu led a listening and vocal activity at Sherbrooke Falls on Day 3. Artists pictured (left to right): Gülsen, Mandy, Jill, Tammy, Aarti and Gretel.

3. Exhibition view of ngurrak-al marram-u / body of the mountain, Burrinja Gallery 1. Artwork by Mandy Nicholson, Rebecca Murray, Tammy Wong Hulbert.

All images above and below by Laki Sideris Photography