Abdul-Rahman Abdullah and Christopher Bassi in ‘Mare Amoris | Sea of Love’ at UQ Art Museum

31 Jul 2023

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah and Christopher Bassi are part of Mare Amoris | Sea of Love, a group exhibition that gathers creative and intellectual practices that dissolve the colonial boundaries of oceans and their connected waters. Curated by Peta Rake, Léuli Eshrāghi, Isabella Baker, Jocelyn Flynn, artists and their kin give language, voice, and form to these watery spaces, passed down through matrilineal storytelling, bodily memory, and land-based knowledge systems.

The title and translation of Mare Amoris gently moves beyond the Latin term ‘mare nullius’ used to violently erase and deny the rights of communities and their sovereign custodianship of Sea Country. ‘Mare nullius’ refers to the Eurocentric idea that sovereign rights end at the coastline, making oceans void of ownership. Increasingly complicated by sea level rise, ‘mare nullius’ and its legacies slice through ancestral rights and long-held stewardship of the seas.

Artists include: Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick, Seba Calfuqueo, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Sonja Carmichael, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Mariquita ‘Micki’ Davis, Djambawa Marawili, New Mineral Collective, Santiago Mostyn, Leyla Stevens, Shannon Te Ao, Unbound Collective, Judy Watson.   

Mare Amoris | Sea of Love is on view at The University of Queensland Art Museum until 20 January 2024.