The Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland pivots between an animated vision of a toxic world and promotional videos from multinational behemoths the likes of Monsanto and Dow. The installation’s “presentfictional” world reengineers colonial displacement. Here, only the Indigenous people of Australia are capable of surviving the future of poisoned lands and seascapes that threaten the Europeans who are described as being incapable of existing outdoors for long periods of time. Contrasting the display of misleading documentary assertions of the safe ecological practices of multinational chemo is the parallel journey of Aiden. A young indigenous man who was removed as a baby to participate in a medical experiment to save the white race, Aiden journeys across the indigenous landscape with his father and brother as they encounter contrasting possible futures and pasts.

Karrabing Film Collective consists of over 50 members, all but one Indigenous stakeholders for the land, with ages from new-born to elder. The Karrabing Indigenous Corporation seeks to integrate their parents and grandparents ways of life into their contemporary struggles to educate their children, create economically sustainable cultural and environmental businesses, and support their homeland centres.

View The Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland at the Picket Family Video Gallery in the Johnson Museum of Art from Nov 16-Dec 18, 2022.

2022 Cornell Biennial
Sponsored by the Cornell Council for the Arts and curated by Timothy Murray, the 2022 Cornell Biennial "Futurities, Uncertain" features exhibitions, installations, and performances by 23 international and 17 Cornell-based artists. Free and open-to-the-public events will rotate on the Cornell Ithaca campus and the Cornell Tech campus in New York City from July through December 2022.

Attend our Celebration Weekend from Sep 15-17, 2022 on the Cornell Ithaca campus. The full list of participants, along with the calendar of 2022 Cornell Biennial events, will be updated in real time at cca.cornell.edu/biennial.