Wambuul (Proclamation Park Bathurst) marks the site where in 1815 Governor Macquarie disposed the Wiradyuri of their country. The mutilated image reveals that coloniality originates and continues as rentier capitalism, reliant on effacing intimate relationships to the land.

Supplanting models of custodianship with ownership enables unsustainable environmental degradation. Using modest, renewable materials and a simple alpha-numerical grid to patiently apply sheets of wet, fragile paper directly to the wall highlights the values of tenderness and the importance of the manual as strategies of resistance to the exploitation of people(s) and the natural world. We conceptualise our work as a poultice.

Judges’ Comments:

The judges found Wambuul (Proclamation Park Bathurst) Wambuul (Proclamation Park Bathurst) by The Arthitects – Gary Carsley & Renjie Teoh, to be a standout work, notable for its materiality, performativity and engagement with the layered histories of the Australian landscape.

It thoughtfully addresses urgent and pertinent themes of environmental custodianship and colonial extractivism. The materiality of the work, coupled with its evocative and deliberate tearing, introduces a performative element that prompts viewers to consider their relationship with the Australian landscape and the perhaps arbitrary value placed on artworks by our cultural institutions.

This reconsideration is further encouraged by the inclusion of the image of a gilded frame which imparts a camp sensibility to the work. The judges also valued the cross-disciplinary collaboration between the architect and the artist.