Danie Mellor – State Library Station

Concept image of the artwork at State Library Station — State Library Station artwork by Danie Mellor – concept only

About the artwork

Danie Mellor's large-scale installation, Forever, will be printed within the glass panels that form the station’s glazed façade on La Trobe Street.

The artwork features historical photographic portraits of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung women set in contemporary landscape imagery taken by Mellor on Wurundjeri Country.

The historical portrait photographs were sourced from the archives of the neighbouring State Library Victoria with assistance from the library’s curatorial team. Mellor used infrared photography to create the landscape imagery that serves as a layered setting for the significant historical portraits. The artwork is an act of storytelling that acknowledges Victoria’s First Peoples and especially women, honouring their social, familial and cultural contributions to Melbourne.

Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Elders were respectfully consulted in the development of the artwork.

‘People will be coming into the station each day and seeing powerful ancestral portraits of Aboriginal women in immense landscapes reaching from floor to ceiling. I hope the work reminds audiences of the ancientness of the environment conveyed in this space and our connection with it, and the importance of Country to First Nations people and culture.’

– Danie Mellor -

About the artist

Danie Mellor is a contemporary artist living and working in Bowral, New South Wales. Born in Mackay, North Queensland, his maternal family heritage is Aboriginal with Scottish and Irish settler ancestry from the Atherton Tablelands and Cairns region, and his father’s family emigrated to Australia from California in the early 1900s.

His research and practice explore intersections between contemporary and historic culture, and the legacies of cultural memory and knowledge. Mellor’s work is held in regional, state and national collections, including the National Gallery of Australia and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and international museums including the National Gallery of Canada, British Museum and National Museums Scotland.

In 2010 he was appointed to the Visual Arts Board at the Australia Council for the Arts and subsequently served as Chair of Artform until 2015. In 2020 he was appointed to the Board of MCA Australia and the Visual Arts Board of Create NSW.

Filmmaker: Nigel Karikari/Thirdrow Films