Jazz Money, Only Country Lasts Forever, 2024, powder coated aluminium and steel, LED solar lights. Installation view, ‘Canberra Art Biennial’, Kamberri/Canberra, 2024. Courtesy of Kevin Miller and Canberra Art Biennial

Despite its status as the centre of power in this country, Kamberri/Canberra is known to many Australians mostly through simulacra, reproduced endlessly in political reportage. Even locals, who live and work in close proximity to these sites of power, can become complacent to the goings-on in the Parliamentary Triangle. The Canberra Art Biennial, which opened on 27 September, provides an impetus to recontextualise this familiar landscape.

This is the fifth iteration of the festival. It was launched in 2016 by Neil Hobbs as ‘contour 556,’ a reference to the elevation above sea level of Lake Burley Griffin, but the growing scope and geographical reach of the event—this year, it includes 20 sites and 60 artists, as well as collaborations with independent curators, art spaces, a cinema and restaurateurs—has necessitated a change in name.

Its new identity opens the event up to broader audiences and, unlike the more esoteric ‘contour 556,’ makes plain that this is a public art biennial which takes place in Kamberri/Canberra. Since its inception, the Canberra Art Biennial has, according to Hobbs, interrogated “the transformative nature of public art on the public realm” through interventions in the unique landscapes of Kamberri/Canberra—political, cultural and architectural. When it comes to the notion of the public realm, Kamberri/Canberra is an intriguing case study: a city designed by architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin around an artificial lake, imposed on the unceded lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, conceived specifically to become the centre of public (which is to say, political) life.

Only Country Lasts Forever (2024) is a site-specific installation by Wiradjuri artist Jazz Money that perceives this familiar landscape through poetics. The form of the work is simple—a sheet of powder-coated aluminium, with the titular words spelled out in negative space, revealing the landscape behind. It is Money’s spatial dialogue with the site which proves most powerful. Only Country Lasts Forever is installed at Commonwealth Place at the intersection of two perpendicular axes (land and water) which form the Griffins’ central design of Kamberri/Canberra.

The land axis runs from its south apex at Parliament House, across the lake and to the Australian War Memorial and Mount Ainslie, the latter a particularly important site for local First Nations people. Only Country Lasts Forever interrupts this view, now only visible through Money’s words, which she describes as “portals to Country”. Viewed at just the right angle, Only Country Lasts Forever obscures the War Memorial from view, leaving only a vision of Mount Ainslie. This is a work about changing perspectives, in the most literal sense.

Money’s practice is in dialogue with the contemporary moment but always situated in an understanding of deep time. To appreciate the full impact of the work, it should be observed across time. At night, the installation is lit from within against the inky backdrop of the lake. The proximity to water is also significant. “As a Wiradjuri person, we are freshwater people, and specifically, river system people,” says Money. There is a connection to Money’s homelands, which sit on the Murrumbidgee River, which flows into the Molonglo River and Lake Burley Griffin.

There is a duality to Money’s words. Only Country Lasts Forever invokes a sense of hope for the longevity of the world’s longest continuous culture and First Nations people’s connections to Country. “I have some hope that the problems of colonialism, capitalism and imperialism will be outlasted by Country. Blackfellas are an inextricable part of Country. If Country lasts forever, so will our culture,” says Money. There is hope, but also protest. Only Country Lasts Forever is a direct challenge to Kamberri/Canberra. It tells the forces that manipulate and exploit Country to perpetuate colonial power that their reign is temporary. It is a threat and a promise.

Sophia Halloway, Kamberri/Canberra

The Canberra Art Biennial, led by Creative Producer Tegan Garnett, continues until 26 October 2024. Find the full program here.