Next on the List draws from Alvin’s cultural understanding of climate shift and the impacts of changing land use. It proposes a contemporary and evolving perspective on humans as a species now threatened in our present and future climate change context. Specifically, Alvin brings together elements created in timber and uses pyrography to speak to cultural water carrying practices usurped by white settlement and their irrigation systems on Yorta Yorta Country. Between empty water carrying coolamons, the remnant stumps of settlement on drained swamps marked by the passage of fire stand in vigil over an endangered species. Together they invite reflection on a future context where humans along with their cultural practices—such as water carrying systems and shelters—are next on the endangered list. But look closely. You might find signs of the survival routes used by ‘drought specialist’ species.
Alvin Darcy is a Yorta Yorta, Taungurung man and pyrography artist (freehand burn marking on artefacts, wood, or other materials) through his father, and a Ngarigo, Walbunja man through his mother.
For Next on the List, Alvin took part in a Parched residency on Yorta Yorta Country in late 2022. He also undertook research through Punctum (BEYOND residency) and an exchange program with Situate Labs in lutruwita/Tasmania.
