Laurel Nannup: Virtual exhibition What Road Are You Going To Take?

The exhibition brought together major printmaking works from celebrated artist Laurel Nannup alongside the State Library of Western Australia's heritage collection. What Road Are You Going to Take? is an important and deeply personal exhibition of Laurel's work curated by her son and artist Brett Nannup. Laurel's exquisite woodcuts and etchings traverse her early life through her 'child eyes' as a member of the Stolen Generation.

Laurel created the First Contact sculpture that overlooks Elizabeth Quay. The sculpture was inspired by the Noongar people's first visions of European settlers, whose distant sailing ships looked like floating birds bearing the white-faced spirits of their ancestors. See a magnificent maquette (mini mock-up) of the statue and the painting that inspired the sculpture.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Laurel Nannup's 2001 artwork. A turning point in Laurel's art career, the print depicts a vivid dream where an old Nyoongar man meets her at the crossroads and asks her, 'What road are you going to take?'. Both looking at each other, Laurel awakens from the dream in a fright only to realise that the old Nyoongar man was her old grandfather telling her to 'Continue with what you started'. Laurel went on to earn first-class Honours in Fine Arts at Curtin University.

Spanning Laurel's extraordinary body of work, the exhibition describes intimate stories of her experiences as a young child and teenager. As she says in her own words, 'I feel I need to leave some stories behind'.

Below you can fin education booklets for primary school children and photos from the exhibition. See more photos from the launch on Facebook.