Claire Conroy

Born 1977, Sydney
Bachelor of Visual Arts
Graduation show: 1999
Graduation ceremony: 2000

Artworks in Space YZ

Jabiluka Blockade Protest, 1998
Six colour photographs
29.7 x 42 cm (each)

My photographs in Space YZ are from the Jabiluka Blockade in 1998. I was funded by the student union to fix the drive shaft in my car to take me and three other students to the blockade in Kakadu in the Northern Territory. We protested in solidarity with the Mirarr people to stop the Jabiluka mine from being built on their land in Kakadu. 

Experiencing and participating in the blockade was educational and emotionally difficult. Eventually, the campaign was successful and the Jabiluka mine was stopped. There is a good timeline here. My Holden Kingswood was left at the blockade, transformed into a lizard by protester Janine Stanton and was used as a lock on where protesters embedded themselves in the car for hours blocking works on the land. It's featured in a book called Up for Rego: A Social History of the Holden Kingswood.

Attending the blockade reflected my artistic and political interests and developed in me a deeper understanding we are living in a colonised country on Aboriginal land.

The art work I created at UWS reflected the environment, interactions between nature and culture. I worked mainly with sculpture, my graduation installation was a sound sculpture that developed organic rust patterns over time, it was selected for Hatched, the emerging artists exhibition at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. 

My interest in protest and documentary photography continues, recently documenting a performance group - The Department of Homo Affairs at the 2020 Mardi Gras - who stopped the Liberal Float at Taylor Square in a satirical  performance of colonial powers. Standing in solidarity with First Nations people around the continent, demanding a stop to a replica of Captain Cook’s ship the Endeavour. 

My interest in nature, culture, and politics regarding women and environment continues. My recent work can be seen on my website.

UWS pulled down barriers between disciplines, it was all the things an art school should be, academically stimulating, experimental, supportive and fun. I really loved it. 

I wanted to do my Honours there a few years after I graduated but the art school had closed.