Barkindji man Kent Morris is a Melbourne based artist with more than twenty years' experience as a practicing artist and curator. He is one of seven artists whose work was chosen to adorn one of Melbourne’s trams.
This transformation of seven of Melbourne’s trams into mobile canvases is a part of the 2019 Melbourne International Arts Festival which wrapped up on October 20th, but the artworks will remain on the trams until 2020.
Kent Morris’s design has a strong sense of place and is closely related to where the City of Melbourne is, on the land of the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) people of the Kulin Nation.
His artwork strongly relates to his art practice of reshaping, rethinking and re-imagining the built environment to better reflect the long history of Aboriginal communities and people. It also acts as a reminder of how ever-present the philosophies and knowledge of Aboriginal people are to Australia.
Kent Morris's creation was inspired by an ugly apartment building on Chapel Street in St Kilda and his desire to reshape that building to reflect the shapes and rhythms of Aboriginal culture. Magpies feature strongly in this project as they are linked to creation stories that go back tens of thousands of years but are still alive today.
According to Kent Morris art is a way to get a better balance between Indigenous philosophies and ways of thinking and non-indigenous ways of thinking. Te Barkindji artist welcomes the ongoing tradition of having the artwork of ‘mob’ on Melbourne trams.
Last year, the work of Hayley Miller-Baker featured and this year Wiradjuri woman Vandal also had her artwork to feature on a tram. Kent sees the fact that two of the seven trams this year are carrying First Nation Stories as culture in motion and a way to share Aboriginal stories across Melbourne.
He believes Australia is currently experiencing the evolution of a collective celebration and acknowledgement of Aboriginal culture and stories. He attributes this to a build-up of generations of persistence and perseverance. He also acknowledges the hard work of ancestors in keeping Aboriginal culture and stories alive.
Art is one of the key communication tools for Aboriginal Australians and it engages people around the world.
