Jacqui O’Reilly Return from Erasure 2021 Sound and moving image 2.39min
This work critiques listening as a settler coloniser action within evolving decolonisation practice around the world. It engages Aotearoa New Zealand as a hypo subject of ethical relationality where a progressive understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840 (the Treaty of Waitangi) deems tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty of land) is retained by Māori.
Grains of sound as resonance and vitality have been extracted from the audio files of online zoom meetings, where the artist engaged in kōrero (discussion) to build relationships with Māori and learn about tangata whenua (people of the land) in the Māori sense. The resulting composition speculates on the sound of decolonisation as a synthesis of relationality, with emphasis on the present moment as the signal for continuous movement beyond ongoing processes of colonisation.
Reference: Huygens, I. (2011). Developing a Decolonisation Practice for Settler Colonisers: A Case Study from Aotearoa New Zealand. Settler Colonial Studies, 1(2), 53–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473x.2011.10648812
Jacqui O’Reilly is a Pākehā artist from Aotearoa New Zealand, now based in Sydney Australia on the unceded land of the Gadigal people, traditional custodians of the Eora Nation. Using experimental sound, moving image, installation and performance, Jacqui investigates relations between people, place, media and perception to disrupt the saturation of repetitive and hegemonic representation in the digital world. jacquioreilly.com
