Helen Johnson & Judy Watson

the red thread of history, loose ends is an opportunity to experience the work of two leading Australian artists in an exhibition that explores complex and varied perspectives on colonisation, with an emphasis on the experience of women.

Originally commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia for the Know My Name programme, and as part of the Balnaves Contemporary Series, at MUMA this exhibition is brought together with existing works by each artist that explore the significance of family and motherhood, the importance of matrilineal lineage, and the tensions between individualism and connectedness.

While the red thread of history, loose ends brings disparate histories and subject positions into proximity, it also celebrates the artists’ shared love of materiality. Watson and Johnson engage with the cultural and political significance of image and mark making, with both addressing the relationship between layering and memory, body and material. Working primarily across painting and printmaking, their works individually and in conversation draw on colonial archives, reclaiming female experiences and perspectives. Both artists acknowledge the ongoing nature and legacies of colonialism and the importance of making change.