Resist the System - Karla Dickens

Resist the System brings together two major artworks from Karla Dickens. Return to Sender is an installation that reworks a collection of found postcards picturing First Nations people from the turn of last century. Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens confronts these racist greetings with messages of strength and survival. This celebrated work will be exhibited alongside Criminalised, a new commission created especially for Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, that challenges the criminalisation of young Black children. The artist has sewn and decorated black balaclavas, typically associated with concealing the identity of a criminals, to create a new photographic series with young First Nation children from her neighbourhood on Bundjalung Country, NSW. Karla Dickens is a Wiradjuri artist whose work spans sculpture, textiles, poetry, painting, photography, and found material collage. Drawing on her Indigenous heritage and experiences as a single mother, Dickens's work uncovers hidden aspects of Australia's past and ongoing relationship with its Indigenous peoples. Using a range of methods and materials, her work celebrates and critiques historical figures and practices, interprets histories of institutionalisation and dispossession, and communicates the ongoing discrimination, oppression, and socio-cultural repercussions of colonialism experienced by Australians of Indigenous descent. Karla's work has been included in the Biennale of Sydney, the Asia Pacific Triennial and numerous prestigious exhibitions in Australia and around the world.