Jarrad Martyn’s practice explores how different moments in Australian history have been framed. Through painting and drawing, Martyn employs the principle of bricolage, constructing from a diverse range of things, to collate academic research and its associated imagery. Heavily relying on shifts between expected contexts and associated time periods, Martyn creates an alternate conversation and encourages the audience to try and deduce what is unfolding in his images, and to ultimately consider how complicit they are in that framing of history.

In Territory, Martyn brings together photographs sourced from the local Joondalup archives and photographs he had taken visiting Lake Joondalup. Martyn was interested in the past functions of Lake Joondalup - being used for market gardens, and various farming practices, notably for poultry, dairy, bees and pigs.

The work’s subdued palette originates from plans from the 1970s Corridor Plan for Perth, where Joondalup was significantly developed. The palette also alludes to the Noongar translations of Joondalup, which means either ‘place of glistening’ or ‘whiteness’ and acknowledges the long-standing relationship between Indigenous people and the site. This palette combined with a painterly approach to figuration creates an ambiguous representation of the landscape.

Territory encourages dialogue surrounding the speed in which the landscape has changed since white settlement, how society values certain histories over others and the inhospitable way settlers engaged with the landscape.

Winner of the 2017 Invitation Art Prize