TILT is an ongoing program that invites established artists to respond to the many layered history of Goolugatup Heathcote and the surrounding area. This site has been an important Indigenous site for thousands of years more recently though from 1920sto the 1990s it was known as one of the most important mental health hospitals in Perth. The affluent riverside suburb of Applecross surrounds the manicured gardens and heritage buildings of the site. The Goolugatup of today is home to a thriving cultural precinct and contemporary art gallery. For TILT’s 16th year,we invited Anna Louise Richardson and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah to explore the site’s history and significance.

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Anna Louise Richardson and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah live on a cattle property with their three small children, on Wadjuk Nyungar country in the Peel region of Western Australia. Immersed in an agricultural environment, their practices offer alternative perspectives across diverse, and often disparate communities, finding common ground in the intersections of culture, family and the natural world. Animals are fundamental to their visual languages, populating a collaborative practice spanning drawing, sculpture and installation with a beguiling familiarity that speaks to a collective, and distinctly human experience. Together, they weave a narrative that both questions and affirms our role in an environment shared with the cyclic vitality of life, death and love.

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Photo: Bo Wong