Rowan Conroy, Untitled #5 from the series Weereewa / bad water, pigment inkjet print on cotton rag, 2016.
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Weereewa or ‘bad water’ was the Ngunnawal name given to Lake George in NSW, so named for the undrinkable salinity of the lake water and an association with bad spirits. At over three million years old it is one of the world’s oldest lakes. The lakebed is an expansive palimpsest and written across its surface are many overlaid histories and mythologies. My practice over the last year has turned to the lake, attempting to map and comprehend its mysterious landscape and topography. The lake is visually spectacular and continually changing but it is also clouded in myth and memory. Many tragedies have befallen those who have ventured on the lake, the deceptively shallow waters can turn into treacherous waves as storms appear without warning. Paradoxically these tragedies seem far from the present situation. The lake has been dry since 2002 and many children have only ever known Weereewa as a sea of grass.
See Rowan’s article about the project in Art Monthly Australasia here
Rowan Conroy, Untitled #2, from the series Weereewa / bad water, pigment inkjet print on cotton rag, 2016.
Rowan Conroy, Untitled #3, from the series Weereewa / bad water, pigment inkjet print on cotton rag, 2016.