Brook Andrew at Liverpool Biennial 2023

Brook Andrew's new large-scale neon work displayed at Stanley Dock, entitled 'NGAAY' (2023) (a Wiradjuri word meaning 'to see') for uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things, Liverpool Biennial 2023.

 

Combining languages including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, isiXhosa, Wiradjuri, Urdu, Mandarin and Welsh, the commission symbolises the cultural and historical linguistic diversity of Merseyside. It is at once a celebration and a critical examination of this diversity, highlighting its origins in the city's history of trade in goods and enslaved peoples. The river Mersey acts as a witness to these histories of violence and extraction which remain mapped across the world today: Sydney, Australia is home to a place called Birkenhead Point and a suburb named Liverpool. These duplicate monikers serve as reminders of the British colonial exploits that spanned the globe. Through centring indigenous language and perspectives, Andrew's work questions the limitations imposed by colonial power structures, historical amnesia, and stereotyping. Drawing on his Wiradjuri heritage (Indigenous Australian), Andrew disrupts Western conventions of space and time, to present alternative histories and ways of being.

 

The 12th edition of Liverpool Biennial 'uMoya: The sacred Return of Lost Things' addresses the history and temperament of the city of Liverpool and is a call for ancestral and indigenous forms of knowledge, wisdom and healing. In the isiZulu language, 'uMoya' means spirit, breath, air, climate and wind.

 

Curated by Khanyisile Mbongwa, a Cape Town-based independent curator, award-winning artist and sociologist who engages with her curatorial practice as Curing & Care, using the creative to instigate spaces for emancipatory practices, joy and play.