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At the Ridges of Our Hands is an initiative of Soul Alphabet, a small organisation committed to amplifying the voices of People of Colour, with a focus on working alongside those belonging to the African diaspora. At the Ridges of Our Hands celebrates the enduring influence that the African diaspora have style and aesthetics globally, recentering the African diaspora at the heart of all that is cool.

Amanda Bell's newly commissioned work Balak (Naked), 2022, approaches the themes of wardarn or oceans through a lens of personal and collective trauma. This significant installation, comprised of neon glass, audio, written word, marri gum and collected yongka (kangaroo) bones, asks us to reflect upon recent histories for First Nations people, those of colonial invasion and dispossession inflicted by the British in their strategic assault and takeover of this continent.

Garry Sibosado is an artist, designer, and jeweller of the Bard people of the west Kimberley. Garry’s works are contemporary explorations of traditional Bard creation narratives, kinship systems and culture, made from guwan or pearl shell, the same material used by his ancestors in fashioning of cultural objects. 

Sam Bloor’s newly commissioned works presented within the galleries at Fremantle Arts Centre and off-site on the carriages of the Tourist Wheel at Fremantle Esplanade Park examine our coastline and the oceans that surround as site of asylum for those fleeing persecution, but also as site of nationalism and systemic racism. Bloor’s works in Undertow, like many in his oeuvre, employ highly-considered text provocations that interrogate Australia’s hard-line stance on border protection

Aotearoa-born, Sāmoan/Australian artist Angela Tiatia makes works that speak to Pacific identity, the impact of colonialism and the realities of the climate emergency in a global context. Tiatia shifts between performance, installation, and lens-based practice, often employing her body as both subject and medium in place-based endurance performance works. Tiatia works grapple with race, power and gender and make nuanced critique on history’s influence on contemporary reality.

Ron Bradfield is a storyteller and for many years telling stories and spinning yarns has been his primary artistic medium, weaving words and conversations with generosity, humour, charm, and wit to share stories of his life and those of his loved ones. He does this in a way that opens the hearts, minds, and mouths of those in his company – creating space for everyone to listen and to share, but most importantly he holds space for people to feel - to feel joy or sadness and to feel safe in revealing their own stories.

The ambitious installation work of mother and daughter team, Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael, Ngugi artists from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island, Queensland) and Mulgumpin (Moreton Island, Queensland) sits at the heart of Undertow, transforming FAC’s main gallery into an underwater chasm, enveloping and submerging visitors within a vessel of ancestral knowledge as if held in the ocean’s watery embrace. Presenting their most ambitious installation work to date, comprised of six expansive cyanotype works on cotton and a selection of forms woven in the enduring traditions of Quandamooka women, Dabiyil Bajara, 2021, is a celebration of Quandamooka sea Country.

Presented in association with Perth Festival, Undertow charts the social and cultural histories of our oceans, exploring their role as places of arrival and departure, pathways to freedom, economic highways, sites of colonial terror and vessels of deep ancestral knowledge.

Fremantle Arts Centre’s Sunday Music will feature one of its most diverse and youthful lineups to date across January, February and March, rounding out another magnificent summer of free live music in the Port City. Running 2-4pm every Sunday until 3 April, Sunday Music features a carefully curated selection of some of the most exciting new talent making waves in the local scene, performing on the hallowed yet laidback stage in FAC’s Front Garden.

With Bazaar 2021 just around the corner, we've compiled this handy guide of need-to-know tips and tricks to ensure your day at the market is a successful one. Read on and get excited about WA's favourite Christmas Makers' Market, which returns to FAC from 3-5 December.