FEVER

Curated by Alinta Maguire

9 August - 2 November 2025

FEVER draws on the entwined legacies of First Nations cultural, creative and activist practices, to stage our world as a fever dreamt epoch. One that is marked by ecological crisis and cultural violence. In times when fear and fatigue settle like fog, this exhibition is a calling to trace the footsteps of First Nations Ancestors and Elders – to rewrite colonial narratives and decolonise our collective future.

By centring Blak sovereign identities and self-expression that resist state-sanctioned, palatable or exoticised representations, FEVER disrupts Eurocentric historical narratives in a nation-state where colonisation has expanded beyond place and space. Through diverse creative practices from across so-called Australia, FEVER reflects on complex experiences of identity, dispossession and resistance, urging us to radically re-imagine our relationship with Country - (and with each other).

Grounded in First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing, these works challenge and unsettle colonial systems of knowledge and power. As Frantz Fanon wrote in Wretched of the Earth (1961), “decolonisation, which sets out to change the order of the world, is clearly an agenda for total disorder”.

Alongside First Nations works from the WAG collection, FEVER includes works by guest artist Juundaal Strang-Yettica (Yugambeh-Bundjalung and Kannakan).

Artists:

Abie Jangala, Beryl Brierley, Brenda L Croft, Bonny Brennan, Chico Monks, David Nolan, Freddie Timms, Garry Jones, Herbert Raberaba, Jean Nampijinpa Hudson, Jemima Wyman, Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Karla Dickens, Mervyn Bishop, Mick Kubarkku, Peter James Hewitt, Ricky Connick, Samantha Hobson, Steven Russell, Tracey Moffatt, Tony Albert, Vanessa Inkamala, Vernon Ah Kee, Vic Chapman

Image: Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Sister Everywhen (detail), 2022. Photography: Alex Wisser, taken on Dabee-Wiradjuri Land, New South Wales. Courtesy of the artist.