
Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Stanley Dock
10 June – 17 September 2023
Brook Andrew, NGAAY SEE, 2023. Installation view at Stanley Dock, Liverpool Biennial 2023. Photography by Rob Battersby. Courtesy Liverpool Biennial
Combining languages including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, isiXhosa, Wiradjuri, Urdu, Mandarin and Welsh, the commission symbolises the cultural and historical linguistic diversity of Merseyside. It is at once a celebration and a critical examination of this diversity, highlighting its origins in the city’s history of trade in goods and enslaved peoples. The river Mersey acts as a witness to these histories of violence and extraction which remain mapped across the world today: Sydney, Australia is home to a place called Birkenhead Point and a suburb named Liverpool. These duplicate monikers serve as reminders of the British colonial exploits that spanned the globe. Through centring indigenous language and perspectives, Andrew’s work questions the limitations imposed by colonial power structures, historical amnesia, and stereotyping. Drawing on his Wiradjuri heritage (Indigenous Australian), Andrew disrupts Western conventions of space and time, to present alternative histories and ways of being.