Danie Mellor Ngadjon-jii/Mamu peoples / Australia QLD/NSW b.1971 / The far Country 2022 / Chromogenic print / 180 x 240cm (framed) / Courtesy: The artist / © Danie Mellor

‘The far Country shows two places: one a place of death, and the other an intended destination. It recalls a journey undertaken by the ancestor Girrugarr, a man with magical power who gifted language, names and knowledge to bama (people) as he travelled over rainforest Country. According to one version of the legend, Girrugarr’s goal as he travelled northward was to reach Din Din [Barron Falls], but he was ultimately waylaid and met an untimely death by the Tully River.

In The far Country, infrared rainforest imagery from the place of Girrugarr’s demise is interwoven with my own photographs and archival imagery of the Barron Falls. These are combined to create a composite photograph that blurs distinctions of time, space and location. The ambiguity and archaeology of the image is something that I find fascinating and identifies the process being similar to ways in which memories are recalled, assembled and even recorded; there are often multiple sources and narratives presented and recorded as a singular remembrance or recollection.’ – Danie Mellor
 

Danie Mellor Ngadjon-jii/Mamu peoples / Australia QLD/NSW b.1971 / The end of certainty 2020 / Synthetic polymer paint on board with gesso and iridescent wash / 166 x 244cm / Private collection, Brisbane / Photograph: Mim Sterling / Image courtesy: The artist / © Danie Mellor

‘The end of certainty is a work that evokes feelings of melancholy. The scene shows a campsite and a space once used to live in, with mijas (shelters) now falling into disrepair. It signals in my mind an end of surety for cultural continuation and for Aboriginal people in that landscape. While the scene is made deliberately poignant through its colour hue and atmosphere, there is a matter-of-fact acknowledgment of a passing moment in time.’ – Danie Mellor 
 

Danie Mellor Ngadjon-jii/Mamu peoples / Australia QLD/NSW b.1971 / The remembering (of self and shadow) (installation view, QAG) 2024 / Chromogenic prints on metallic photographic paper, photographic prints on mirror polished steel, gesso and iridescent wash, picture shelves / 74 parts: 280 x 250cm (installed, overall, approx.) / Courtesy: The artist / © Danie Mellor / Photograph: N Umek © QAGOMA

‘The remembering (of self and shadow) presents arrangements of contemporary and archival images that compel audiences to contemplate and imagine connections between past and present. The apparently random placement of these works strategically recalls a condensed version of the “salon hangs” of early public art galleries in Paris, where the act of looking itself was guided by where, and at what height, different genres of works were hung. This arrangement of photographic images recalls that early convention and extends ideas of display by alluding to the shelves of an archive.’ – Danie Mellor 
 

Danie Mellor Ngadjon-jii/Mamu peoples / Australia QLD/NSW b.1971 / Dark star waterfall (still) 2025 / Two-channel video projection: 16:9, colour, sound, 24 minutes; historic footage and images: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Queensland State Archives, State Library of Queensland / This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body through a VACS Major Commissioning project / Courtesy: The artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne / © Danie Mellor

‘Dark star waterfall contemplates the immense power of elemental forces and sweeping vistas of rainforest Country. The “dark star”, an early astronomical term for black holes, provides a symbolic connection through its irresistible gravitational field with waterfalls and the “fall” of water. The precipice and edge of a waterfall is for water what the event horizon of a dark star is to light and matter: at a certain point inescapable. Waterfalls located in traditional Ngadjon and Mamu Country on the Atherton Tablelands were filmed using infrared and visible light cameras, the moving imagery extending the artists’ use of still photographs as a symbolic means of disclosure and revelation.

I see a convergence in Dark star waterfall of time, creation, power and the sublime, all of which can be explored through landscape and the phenomenon of nature. At its heart, the video work seeks to reveal the invisible and is an attempt to show what is unseen. Traversing a timeless plane, reaching back to Jujuba, an ancient time of the totems, and across Country, it seeks to understand the universe itself.’ – Danie Mellor

Danie Mellor Ngadjon-jii/Mamu peoples / Australia QLD/NSW b.1971 / Landscape and memory (in glades of dusk) II (within the installation Shadows of history 2025) 2023 / Synthetic polymer paint with gesso and iridescent wash on board / 40 x 35cm / Courtesy: The artist / © Danie Mellor

Danie Mellor’s use of sepia and monotone acts as a conceptual filter that implies the passing of time, prompting memories and feelings of nostalgia. The artist views it as a gentle yet powerful device in re-presenting historical imagery. As he explains:

'I feel as if the colour and atmosphere of sepia imagery authenticates it both chronologically and as an emotional space where memory can be almost dreamed about. Foxing and surface damage to photos reveal a journey through time and environment, almost like scars and marking that accompany the passage and mapping of life.'