Know Thy Neighbour #3 artist focus: Yabini Kickett
Over the next weeks, we’ll be introducing our Know Thy Neighbour #3 artists, along with their community partners.
Know Thy Neighbour #3, presented by Spaced with the UWA School of Design, is a provocation to the familiarity of place, asking communities to step outside of familiar engagements and locations; to seek out scenarios or contexts that defamiliarize and recontextualise "the local" for audiences, communities, or the artists themselves and ask how we can meaningfully engage in the making of our cities.
Here, we introduce Yabini Kickett who will be working with the Town of East Fremantle.
Yabini Kickett (Esther McDowell) is a descendant of the Kickett and Hayden families of the Bibulmun/Noongar Nation. Having grown up with an artist and poet mother, as well as a photographer and land conservationist father, her practice is heavily rooted in language, endemic plants, family, totemic relations and found objects from country.
In late 2017 Kickett participated in the National Indigenous Arts Leadership program at the National Gallery, this experience helped foster lasting relationships and deeply encouraged her to pursue working within Visual Arts. Currently Kickett is experimenting with textiles, and found objects, with a focus on animal remains from hunting and roadkill. The resulting works are often about place and the solastalgia associated with the destruction of country.
Working with East Fremantle as part of Know Thy Neighbour #3, Kickett’s intentions are to leverage the Town’s proximity to the coast to help draw other’s attention to the smaller things in our surroundings. This will be an opportunity to connect with the community in East Fremantle and encourage them to consider their local environments, how they looked in the past and where they are now. While a lot has changed, we’re still walking/living on ancient soils.
The Town of East Fremantle is a single-neighbourhood town with a large portion of its jurisdiction consisting the shores of the Derbal Yerrigan. As the Town celebrates its 150th anniversary as a local government area this year, its partnership within Know Thy Neighbour #3 offers the opportunity for the community to reflect on its urban and social environment, and its values moving forward. As a key collaborator within the program, Richmond Primary School is enthusiastic to creatively engage young people, empowering them to take an active role in shaping what maintains cultural significance in their local homelands.
Stay in touch with the Know Thy Neighbour #3 artists and their process here, or sign up to our newsletter to get regular updates on all things Spaced.
Yabini Kickett