138 Gallery

Window Exhibition

1 Mar - 9 Mar 2025

“I was working on the set for Maryanne Sam's (Torres Strait Islander) Oh My God I'm Blak! production at La Mama when I noticed that the plywood I was stripping from one of the set pieces was splitting at the edges into fibre. Having recently worked with Isobel Morphy-Walsh (Taun Wurrung) and Stone Turner (Arrente) to construct an emu feather skirt for Phoebe Grainer's Emu In The Sun, I learnt about traditions of using stringybark to weave and make string, and worked with these fibres. I saw a parallel here in my materials for these two plays. These plywood panels document my process of stripping and harvesting string from them, weaving within the gaps made. I'm a Nyikina woman who grew up away from Country, only going up to the Kimberley last year. All of my life I have lived on Wurundjeri land in Fawkner, in built landscapes where asphalt has paved over rivers and weatherboard houses stand where trees would have. I don't know how to harvest from stringybark yet, but I can connect to this practice through reclaiming the materials that surround me. After all, everything is string when you go far back enough - which as demonstrated here, is not far at all. I wish to thank the artists mentioned for their knowledge and generosity and acknowledge their continuums of ancestral practice, including most pertinently weaving, stringmaking and fibre harvesting.” - Emma Salmon, 2025.

Emma Salmon (she/her) is a Nyikina and Celtic artist born and based in Naarm's northern suburbs on Wurundjeri land. Her practice spans stringmaking and weaving, set and costume, installations, comics and video. She is guided by intuition, honesty and Country. She tells stories of her ancestry, family and communities, and their unbroken connection, memory and spirit. She has exhibited with Trocadero Projects and Koorie Heritage Trust and was a set and costume assistant on Blak In The Room (ILBIJERRI x Melbourne Theatre Company 2024) and Scar Trees (ILBIJERRI 2024) and was the scenic artist for The Whisper (Brodie Murray) and Oh My God I'm Blak! (Maryanne Sam). She is currently completing a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking at VCA.

Open Weekdays 2-6pm, Weekends 12-6pm as per shop exhibition dates