‘Mother's Meals’ 2025. Oil paint, solar-print, canvas, found textiles, cork board; Wall works: ‘Mother’s Meals’, 61 x 81.5cm, ‘Pint’, 25 x 25cm, ‘Bottlecap Memoirs’, 25 x 25cm, ‘Emu Hassling’, 25 x 25cm; Plinth: ‘Emu Eggs’, 25 x 25cm, ‘Yabby and Seeds’, 25 x 25cm, ‘Kangaroo and Saltbush’, 25 x 25cm.
Leilani Knight explores food culture and connection in a rural, post-colonial setting. The work is an homage and a memoir to two sides of her life, detailing her experiences growing up in central west NSW as a Wiradjuri/Gamilaroi woman. She unpacks the delicate intricacies between her Indigenous culture and the rest of Australiana.
Through the lens of a multi-generational tale of womanhood, Leilani suggests and addresses the lost stories and Lore of women in both Australian agriculture and the art of feasting. Nanya (grandmother), Nan Marnie (great grandmother) and mummy (mother) overlook the scene, guardian-like and whilst set amongst the Land of their Peoples, we witness a tale of the duality and affinity between two social spheres forcibly co-existing play out.
Leilani investigates attractions and variances in culture, land and space, all unpacked through connection to food and as an extension - the act of its growth and consumption.
Photographs: Anna Kucera
аIJʹÙÍø School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
