April Phillips and Friends with Computers Under Waters
Darrell Sibosado Niman Aarl (Many Fish)
You’re invited into a speculative oceanic world, imagining Earth three billion years ago when water covered the continent. Created by Wiradjuri/Scottish artist April Phillips, recipient of PICA’s inaugural boorda yeyi Immersive Arts Commission, Under Waters was developed on Gadigal and Yuin Country and produced on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar with Pat Younis and Jordan East (Friends with Computers). Within the bounds of a circular enclosure, a room within a room, visitors step into an immersive environment that responds slowly, almost imperceptibly, to their presence. As people move in and within the space it triggers subtle shifts, encouraging a sense of care and attentiveness. The work unfolds in cycles, alternating between oceanic and celestial worlds. Deep-water canyons, coral seas and rich kelp forests give way to an infinite galactic sky of stars and nebula, a reminder that water and sky are kin. As bodies shift, transformations ripple through space. Saltwater Country
thrives with drifting jellyfish, migrating life forms and ancient marine snails inspired by fossil scans, anchoring the experience in ecological memory while opening dreaming and imagined universes. Under Waters uses extended reality (XR) not as spectacle but as a mode of digital storytelling. Motion-tracking cameras read the body and feed real-time changes into the environment – yet human control remains elusive. Grounded in First Nations knowledge systems, the work reflects freshwater and saltwater perspectives where people and Country are inseparable. A sensory and restorative experience, Under Waters calls audiences to recognise our shared reliance on the systems that sustain life and to imagine futures beyond the present. ‘Resting in deep time opens our spirit to imagine ultimate futures.’ – April Phillips
‘Country isn’t just the land you walk on. It’s the waves, the animals, the trees, the noises you hear in the wind, and the ocean whispering all the time.’ – Darrell Sibosado
His large-scale installation reflects on relationships between Makassans and First Peoples of the Kimberley – connections often overlooked by narratives centred on Arnhem Land. Using pearl shell he draws attention to these expansive networks of exchange, where water was both a route and a cultural connector. The work invites audiences to consider how these histories ripple into the present, shaping identity and belonging. Niman Aarl (Many Fish) exemplifies this approach. Created with nephews DJ and Eric Sibosado, it comprises hundreds of hand-carved fish from mother-of-pearl, trochus, ebony and turtle shell –materials traded for centuries. ‘I saw a fish in the trochus shell. It didn’t need to be made, it was already there. So we made more. A whole school’, Darrell reflects. This poetic gesture speaks to continuity and adaptation, as cultural knowledge flows across generations.
Darrell Sibosado is a Goolarrgon Bard man from Lombadina on the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. He holds senior standing as a cultural leader and his practice is a dialogue between Bard cultural traditions and contemporary art forms. Darrell’s Boorloo Contemporary commission for Awakening Histories begins with the riji, mother-of-pearl ceremonial plates worn by Bard men. These intricate carvings, passed down through generations, tell stories of connection to land and sea. Traditionally enhanced with ochre and resin, they embody knowledge systems that have endured for millennia. Darrell reimagines these designs in large-scale light sculptures and etchings, transforming ancient motifs into luminous forms that command space and attention.
Awakening Histories presented with Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in association with Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne. Darrell Sibosado’s work co-commissioned by PICA and Perth Festival for Boorloo Contemporary supported by Wesfarmers Arts.
Presented with Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of their boorda-yeyi program. A Boorloo Contemporary co-commission
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