Set amidst the ravaged and regenerating landscapes of Victoria and New South Wales, Do Brumbies Dream in Red? considers the systems which position the Snowy Mountain brumby and the catastrophic 2019–2020 Australian bushfires within a time of ecological uncertainty.
The moving image component intersects imagery of fire and heat as an industrial process, contrasted against the ecological changes of south-eastern Australia over the course of a year. Feral horses, ever present in high plains, serve as a metonym for the ways we relate to, and attempt to control, nature.
The title itself is a proposition; Horses render the world in blues and greens, asking if they dream in red is an invitation to re-imagine the world as it appeared while suffused in the red glow of the bushfires.
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Sound and score by Sean Kenihan.
Poetry and reading by Judith Nangala Crispin.
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Exhibition text available here.
Do Brumbies Dream in Red? is exhibited as part of the Heat Safe City project, supported by City of Melbourne x Sweltering Cities.