Upside Down Man is a site-specific mixed media and installation exhibition that reveals the history of first contact of colonisation in the Central Coast region.
The exhibition draws from a story connected to a rock art carving of an upside down man in a cave in Popran National Park as well as a similar carving at Daleys Point, near Booker Bay. The carving is said to represent the documentation of the hangings of over 100 local Indigenous people that took place in the trees along the banks of Brisbane Water where the Gosford Regional Art Gallery now resides. Such stories were also witnessed and recorded by the Revernd Threckheld, and was said to have happened as a common occurrence right through to the Hunter Valley region and beyond.
The work aims to document and share these occurrences in which a large percentage of the population are mostly unaware of, and attempts to contribute to level out the bias of white history in which we are taught through our current systems. This exhibition aims to facilitate a space for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together to recognise and acknowledge our history in order to move forward together as one. Education, awareness and understanding lead to compassion and in todays society the need to openly recognise both the positive and negative aspects of our shared history is crucial in moving forward together as one to form the existence of tomorrows more inclusive and multicultural society.
