The Past is Singing in our Teeth

Whether they have taken the form of videos, installations or objects, Kate McMillan’s carefully constructed environments have been distinguished by a poetics of fragmentation that has allowed the impulses of historical and psychological displacement they represent to reverberate beyond the personal into a wider moral field. Having lived in Britain and Australia, and bridging the gap between them, she has been acutely aware of the impacts of colonisation and of how the land, and the nature that animates it, have both reflected and absorbed them. Her vision of the world is fertile, accumulative, full of ghosts. In this respect, her newest work is no different, yet a sense of urgency has replaced previous melancholy as matriarchy has risen to protest its power. This book accompanies the exhibition of the same name and includes interviews, essays and images of the work.