Aboriginal Art Co is proud to support First Nations artist Kieron Anderson through the OCCUPY Residency in partnership with Vacant Assembly.
Following Aboriginal Art Co’s move to West End, the residency partnership ensures the organisation can continue providing meaningful artist development opportunities close to home. Over a 11-week period, Kieron is developing an ambitious new body of work, engaging in mentorship with leading practitioners, and preparing for a solo exhibition at Aboriginal Art Co’s Anthony Street gallery this August.
Kieron Anderson is a direct descendant of the Ngugi people of Mulgumpin (Moreton Island), part of the Quandamooka Nation. His practice is grounded in cultural identity and in the continuation and sharing of knowledge passed down through family, community, and cultural responsibility.
As a saltwater person, Kieron maintains strong connections to the waterways, plants, and animal kin of Quandamooka Country, including Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), where he lives. Central to his cultural practice is the Dugong, which holds deep cultural, medicinal, and nutritional significance for his people.
Taught by his uncles in the practice of Dugong hunting, Kieron’s work exists within a broader cultural system connecting food, ceremony, responsibility, sustainability, and kinship. Through the residency, he is exploring Food as Medicine as a holistic framework - bringing together seasonal cycles, traditional medicines, hunting practices, food preparation, and sustainable First Nations foodways.
Alongside his artistic practice, Kieron’s university studies in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art have expanded his research into the impacts of colonisation on Dugong populations and seagrass ecosystems, including sediment runoff and coastal development. These environmental changes are inseparable from cultural disruption and continue to shape the conceptual grounding of his work.
Kieron has worked with Troy Casey and Amanda Hayman for many years through collaborative projects across art, design, and fashion. Most recently, he contributed a Dugong and honey bee design to the Quandamooka collection with Magpie Goose.
In many ways, this residency extends an ongoing cultural story - one that continues to centre the Dugong as a living thread throughout his practice and storytelling.
Kieron describes being drawn to the residency as a moment of readiness - an opportunity to dedicate focused time and structured space toward developing a cohesive body of work for a solo exhibition. Hearing positive experiences from other participating artists, including fellow Quandamooka artist Dean Bingkin Tyson, reinforced the importance of safe and supportive studio environments where Mob can work in culturally appropriate ways while accessing mentorship, resources, and exhibition pathways.
Mentorship forms a significant part of the residency, with Kieron selecting practitioners whose work both aligns with and challenges his own.
He has had a mentoring session with Bigambul artist and cultural practitioner Rick Roser, whose work with cultural artefacts strongly resonates with his interests, as well as conceptual artist Megan Cope and ceramic artist Laura Bysouth, who will support the development of his clay practice.
Research into Dugong and the impacts of colonisation on their habitats has become the conceptual core of the residency.
Kieron is currently working with organic materials from Country - including mud, sediment, and bark - to create approximately 150 metres of hand-made string. These materials will form a large-scale dugong net sculpture installed throughout the gallery space, accompanied by ceramic Dugong forms that move across the exhibition walls.
The project also extends into moving image, with video documentation of Dugong hunting practices filmed on Quandamooka Country alongside his family. Presented as an archival work grounded in cultural responsibility and permission, the footage forms an important continuation of intergenerational knowledge sharing.
As a trained chef specialising in native ingredients, Kieron is also incorporating food into the exhibition experience itself, creating moments of participation and shared encounter within the gallery. These elements will be revealed during the exhibition opening and extend his broader exploration of Food as Medicine and relational ways of engaging with Country.
Through this body of work, Kieron invites audiences to understand the cultural significance of Dugong to his people and to engage with Food as Medicine not only as nourishment, but as a living system of relationships and interconnectedness between all living beings.
The work speaks to the ongoing impacts of environmental change on Dugong populations and the cultural knowledge systems tied to them. It also reflects Kieron’s lived experience as a culturally initiated hunter and the responsibility he carries in bringing this knowledge into contemporary art practice.
The scale and intensity of the project is reflected in its making processes. Every length of string is harvested, stripped, twined, and woven by hand using materials gathered from Quandamooka Country. Alongside this, Kieron is developing a significant body of ceramic Dugong forms, experimenting with clay bodies, oxides, glazes, and firing techniques to push both material and conceptual outcomes.
Studio exchange and mentorship have also been key moments throughout the residency, including a planned visit with Rick Roser on the Gold Coast to deepen dialogue around material and cultural practice.
Kieron’s approach to community engagement is grounded in the belief that Aboriginal knowledge systems are living, relational, and shared.
“As Blakfellas, our knowledge systems are living, relational, and shared. We learn through doing, through being together, and through passing knowledge across generations,” he explains.
This ethos carries through his public programs.
Through Talk n Twine, Kieron will open his studio to the public, inviting participants into the process of string-making for the dugong net installation. Community members will learn traditional techniques and contribute directly to the work while engaging in conversation about his practice and residency.
He will also facilitate a Bush Foods Pigments workshop at Aboriginal Art Co’s Anthony Street gallery on 27 June. The workshop will combine bush food knowledge with mark-making using natural pigments, with participants creating designed tea towels to take home as keepsakes.
Both public programs extend Kieron’s ongoing exploration of Food as Medicine and the ways everyday materials and practices can carry cultural knowledge forward.
Throughout the residency, Kieron has balanced travel from his island home with university study, family responsibilities, and intensive studio practice. He describes the experience as busy but deeply rewarding, highlighting the importance of having dedicated time, support, and resources to realise such an ambitious body of work.
Following the residency, Kieron will continue developing work for his solo exhibition opening in August while expanding his research into Dugong, seagrass ecosystems, and broader food-based cultural systems. He is also preparing for future projects and cross-cultural collaborations, including a forthcoming collaboration in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Kieron Anderson’s exhibition opens this August at Aboriginal Art Co.
The public is warmly invited to attend his Talk n Twine open studio event on 30 May, participate in the Bush Foods Pigments workshop on 27 June, and visit the exhibition and artist talk later this year.
Aboriginal Art Co is honoured to work alongside Kieron and acknowledges the scale, care, and commitment involved in his residency. The team looks forward to supporting the realisation of this significant body of work as it comes to life within the gallery space.
This year, Aboriginal Art Co and Vacant Assembly are parntering on two residencies fro First Nations artists, including one generously supported by Blaklash.
