Willurai Kirkbright is a Wiradjuri woman who lives in the Blue Mountains and has tribal roots in Northern NSW. A practicing multi discipline artist with a broad range her work is untamed and honest. Growing up half in the city and half in the bush, carrying the blood of both the invaders and the invaded she knows all to well the complexes of living in two worlds.
This is a theme she has explored through out her career. She believes in Art as activism and change through breaking conventions as well as community engagement. Primarily a contemporary artist but often juxtaposes traditional and modern art forms as well as notions of outsider art/craft. Always pushing to expand the idea of what art can be. Two solo exhibitions, over a dozen group shows and over 50 major creative projects she lives for art.
She has established, ran and curated 3 different art spaces in Sydney and has been heavily involved community work involving art as a tool for social change.
Kirkbright is an educator and facilitator, focusing on educating and empowering disadvantaged minorities and Aboriginal people. Using mediums such as installation, multi media and performance she delves into the uncomfortable and essential corners of the human psyche. Her work is always concept based. Issues of identity, gender, colonialism, belonging and displacement at the heart of Willurai’s practise. Often challenging the viewer through an immersive experience and or durational aspect that draws out time, memory, history and human experience.
