Amy Perejuan-Capone

Amy Perejuan-Capone takes a speculative approach in her art practice, creating installation-based scenarios that consider the interaction of phenomena such as weather or flight with personal elements such as memory and family. Her recent projects have involved investigation of family history to explore wider ecological and cultural anxieties.

For Milk Tea (1), she has intricately embroidered an ex-military parachute with monochrome floral motifs depicting the pea plant York Road Poison (Gastrolobium calycinum Benth), an endemic West Australian species toxic to introduced pests but tolerable to native animals. The work is inspired by research into her grandfather’s air force service and his Balardong Nyoongar heritage, both of which were undiscussed in his lifetime. It reflects on the complexities of his life as a ‘white-passing’ Nyoongar man in the WA wheatbelt, who enlisted to fight in an international war to defend a home still enduring frontier violence.