BRUTAL FAMILY ROOTS

“My work revolves around notions of power and the mechanisms at play in contemporary society. One form of power remains that of control: control of information, control of bodies, control of territory and language."

Mohamed Bourouissa’s immersive and magical yellow sonic installation reflects on his childhood love of the Australian Wattletree flower which he knows as ‘mimosa’. This plant is a romantic link to his childhood in Algeria. After learning of its origin in Australia, Bourouissa was inspired to connect directly to the bushlands in Sydney through an artist residency at the Bundanon Trust. Bourouissa immersed himself in the bushland with all of Australia’s native plants and animals – an experience that has shifted his understanding of ‘mimosa’. Bourouissa collaborated with MC Kronic (a Waddi Waddi man of the Yuin Nation and local hip-hop/rap artist), Nardean (an Egyptian-Australian MC, singer and songwriter) and French sound designer and programmer Jordan Quiqueret to create global connections. Like ‘mimosa’, rap and hip-hop with their origins in American Blues music have spread all over the world. The musical and poetic connections drawn between the spread of plants and the spread of language, shared trade routes of Australia and Algeria, draw together ideas of localisation and globalisation, as well as relocation and colonialisms.