Dennis Golding
Born:
Australia
Lives in:
Wangal, Gadigal and Bidjigal Country (Sydney), Australia
Location
- White Bay Power Station
Dennis Golding was born and raised in Sydney and stems from the Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay of North West New South Wales (NSW) and Biripi of Mid North Coast of NSW. Golding’s work critiques the social, political, and cultural representations of race and identity. His practice is drawn from his own experiences living and growing up in urban environments. In his work, Golding often references childhood memories of the Redfern Aboriginal community and his witnessing of the gentrification of ‘The Block’ (Redfern), an area of profound significance to Sydney’s First Nations community. Through his artistic practice, Golding aims to present powerful representations of contemporary Aboriginal cultural identity that inform narratives of history and lived experiences.
Dennis Golding, Connecting Back, 2026. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Fondation Opale, Create NSW and Australian National University. Courtesy of the artist © Dennis Golding. Installation view, 25th Biennale of Sydney, Rememory, 2026, White Bay Power Station. Photograph: Document Photography.
Dennis Golding
Born 1989, Gadigal Country (Sydney), Australia
Lives and works on Wangal, Gadigal and Bidjigal Country (Sydney), Australia Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Biripi
Connecting Back 2026
earthenware, stoneware, stains, oxide, ochre, steel, clear glaze
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Fondation Opale, Create NSW and Australian National University.
Courtesy of the artist
Dennis Golding’s Connecting Back recreates the beaded maze toys he remembers playing with as a child in the waiting room of Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS). As the birthplace of many grassroots movements which established vital legal, health and community services for Aboriginal communities nationwide, Redfern’s decades-long gentrification can be understood as continuation of a colonial system which seeks to remove Indigenous people from their lands.
Taking the 2019 demolition of the iconic Aboriginal Flag mural as a starting point, Golding, who grew up in Redfern before being moved out along with most Aboriginal families, invites audiences to puzzle together the scattered pieces of Redfern’s Indigenous legacy. Figuratively reshaping the fallen black, red and yellow bricks of the mural into hand-made toy beads and placing them on echoed silhouettes, Connecting Back confronts the dispossession of Aboriginal communities and, in the context of its exhibition at the heritage-listed White Bay Power Station, questions what kinds of heritage are deemed worthy of preservation in contemporary Australia.
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