Winner announced for First Nations Exhibition
Published on 12 August 2024
Shoalhaven Regional Gallery is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural First Nations Exhibition, Nicole Smede, with her project Bagandha yanggamba-ngga - ‘Country sings in me’. Nicole receives an artist fee, an exhibition at the Gallery and a mentorship with renown Wiradjuri artist, Karla Dickens.
Bagandha yanggamba-ngga - ‘Country sings in me’ will be a new video and sound installation that speaks to the origins of our traditional languages and the reciprocal exchange between Country, human and non-human kin. In collaboration and consultation with community, this work will feature community Elders and custodians of the Mudingaal Yangamba choir and honour the deep ties between spirit, place, language and song.
Nicole Smede is a multi-disciplinary artist of Warrimay, Irish and English heritage, living and creating on Wadi Wadi Dharawal Country. A reconnection to ancestry, language and culture ripples through her work in voice, song, sound and poetry, exploring what it means to be ‘of Country’. A trained vocalist, Nicole has performed and recorded repertoire from classical, rock and contemporary music through to film and other media. Her voice has been heard on Triple J, globally on award-winning film scores, and graced the stages of City Retail Hall, Parliament House, MONA FOMA festival, galleries and venues across Australia.
In her arts practice, she has created meditations, songs, soundscapes and music for podcasts, plays, ensembles and choirs. Her poetry can be found in Australian Poetry Journal; Rabbit; Guwayu: for all times (Magabala Books, 2020); What we Carry (Recent Work Press, 2021); and 20x20x12 Sensing Place (Manta Publishing, 2021) amongst others, and she has exhibited video and sound installations at NSW Parliament House, SCA Gallery, Sydney, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, and Jennings Kerr, Robertson.
Nicole has been the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Shoalhaven Arts Board Grant, Australia Council’s Space to Create Music residency, APRA AMCOS Women in Music Program, Ngarra-Burria First People’s Composers program, Sweatshop’s Hage Award, South Coast Writers Centre Emerging Writers Program, and a Finalist in the Newcastle Poetry Prize, and Meroogal Women’s Art Prize. Nicole is a member of Nowra-based Yuin women’s choir Mudjingaal Yangamba.
Bagandha yanggamba-ngga - ‘Country sings in me’ will be at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery 24 May to 19 July 2025.
Production still from Nicole Smede, Yulimba, 2024, single-channel video and sound.