Amala Groom is a Wiradyuri conceptual artist who employs a Wiradyuri-based ontology and embodied research-based methodology that considers traditional cultural practice and academia with formal research as a whole-of-person approach as both inquiry and investigation in the actual and literal sense. Her practice, as a collaboration with her Ancestors is driven by the philosophies of Yindyamarra, Kanyini and Dadirri which lay the foundations for a feeling-centred approach in the delicate balancing act that lies between the physical and spiritual worlds.
Groom lives and works on Wiradyuri Country in Kelso, NSW. Her practice, as the performance of her cultural sovereignty, is informed and driven by First Nations epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies. Her work, a form of passionate activism, presents acute and incisive commentary on contemporary socio-political issues. Articulated across diverse media, Groom’s work often subverts and unsettles western iconographies to enunciate Aboriginal stories, experiences and histories, and to interrogate and undermine the legacy of colonialism. Informed by extensive archival, legislative and first-person research, Groom’s work is socially engaged, speaking truth to take a stand against hypocrisy, prejudice, violence and injustice.
Across her practice, Groom proactively seeks to dismantle the Colonial Project by asserting the argument that colonialism is not just disadvantageous for First Peoples but is, in fact, antithetical to the human experience. On a deeper note, Groom intends to make work that speaks to the union of all peoples and to the indivisibility of the human experience that traverses identity, culture, race, class, gender and religious worship.
Selected appointments include Power Institute Foundation for Art and Visual Culture; The University of Sydney: Nicholas and Angela Curtis Cité Internationale des Arts Residency Fellowship (2024); Create NSW First Nations Creative Fellowship w/ State Library of NSW (2022-24); University of Technology Sydney: Inaugural Artist in Residence Program (2021).
Groom’s work is held by Artbank; Blacktown City Art Collection; Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre; Charles Sturt University; Deutsche Bank; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and Western Sydney University.
Photo credit: Penelope Benton