Cast in cast out

Cast in cast out is inspired by Sydney-based Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist Dennis Golding’s experiences and childhood memories of growing up in ‘The Block’, an Aboriginal community in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern. The artwork ‘recasts’ Victorian-era ironwork panels – a distinctive feature of many 19th-century houses in Redfern – as contemporary expressions of power and ownership.

This display of Cast in cast out plays with structural form and shadow. Ten sculptural panels and fragments cast by the artist are suspended at varying heights, each one casting a shadow onto the vivid blue wall behind. Fragments appear to float from the panels onto the ground, representing Golding’s dismantling of colonial symbols of division and control, the broken shards a means of reclaiming, transforming and breaking away from colonial constructs. The artist’s presence resonates through his photographic self-portrait, which provides the focal point for the display, his arresting gaze directed at visitors as they enter the gallery.

The display is accompanied by a 3D-printed replica of one of the panels, to give visitors an opportunity to feel its shapes and textures, as well as a filmed interview in which Golding discusses Cast in cast out and its genesis.

Image: Photographic self portrait from Cast in cast out (detail), Dennis Golding. (Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay), 2020. Museum of Sydney Collection, Museums of History NSW. © Dennis Golding.