Melbourne Metro Legacy Artwork Commission 2024

Forever

State Library Station artwork, La Trobe and Swanston Streets, Melbourne CDB

Forever features historical portraits of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung women set in contemporary landscape imagery taken on Wurundjeri Country.

‘When people see the powerful ancestral portraits of Aboriginal women in immense landscapes, I hope the work reminds audiences of the ancientness of the environment conveyed in this space and our connection with it, and the importance of Country to First Nations people and culture.’
Danie Mellor

Sourced from archives of the neighbouring State Library Victoria (SLV), the historical photographs were made available through the generosity of the Wurundjeri Elders Council with the support of the Victorian Indigenous Research Centre at SLV. Infrared photography was used to create landscape imagery as a layered setting for the significant historical imagery. The artwork is an act of storytelling acknowledging Victoria’s First Peoples and especially women, honouring their social, familial and cultural contributions to Narrm/Melbourne.

Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Elders were consulted in the artistic and cultural development of the artwork.