18th September – 10th October

Nicole Monks is Sydney based trans-disciplinary creative of Aboriginal, Dutch and English Heritage. Monks has a certificate 4 in Fine Arts at Great Lakes TAFE and Interior Design diploma at KVB Collage North Sydney, she is currently studying Design Anthropology at Swinburne. Monks founded the company ‘blackandwhite creative’ in 2012 to weave Aboriginal philosophies of sustainability, innovation and collaboration into contemporary art & design projects. In 2012 she became a member of NSW Art Gallery ‘Young Peoples’ Committee and in 2014 was elected the president. Since 2011 Monks has exhibited at Boomalli Aboriginal Art Co-operative with her first solo show in 2014. In 2012 Monks was curated into her first international exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and in 2014 at the Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize Monks won the UNSW Art & Design Residency and received Highly Commended. Monks won the Fisher Ghost Photography award and a Sydney Design Award for her showcase at Australian Indigenous Fashion Week. In 2015 Monks received a grant from artsNSW and won the Drift art installation award in Mandurah, WA. Monks questions her place in this time and space by focusing on the learned behaviour/thoughts we attach to objects, in particular the differences between Western culture and Aboriginal culture as she explore her own cross cultural heritage. Within Monks practice she collaborates with selected creatives bringing a wider resonance to the work, for the series ‘Money cant by me love’ Monks collaborated with Luke Butterly. Luke Butterly (1980, Ireland) graduated with a Diploma in Photography from the Sydney Institute of Technology in 2003. Managing his commercial photography studio in Sydney since 2003 he has simultaneously developed bodies of work reflecting his interest in the history of photography as an art form. Influenced by Mark Power and Simon Roberts Luke’s personal style has developed an incisive character, exposing an honest truth.

When I first performed ‘Conshumanism’ in 2008 I didn’t know I was Aboriginal. It was during a time when I had moved back to my small hometown, Pacific Palms New South Wales after living in the city and travelling the world for over a decade. I was renting a room in a housing estate where every house was a slight variation of the next one, each striving to outdo each other with their high-priced additions of cars and/or boats. I remember walking down the street and feeling sad that we were valuing ourselves by the objects we owned. Coming back to Pacific Palms where my life’s learning began I could clearly see what I truly valued; my connection to Country and interconnectedness to all things. Once I had acknowledged this, it was very difficult to find a place where these ideas and my consumerist behaviour and ongoing creation of waste fitted together. I felt remorseful for my behaviour and its negative effect on the environment. ‘Conshumanism’ and now ‘Money can’t buy me love’ express these deep ideas and inner feelings and in retrospect, once I had discovered my Aboriginal heritage, these heartfelt ideas all made sense and meant I felt an undeniable connection to my identity.