NGAAY/SEE

NGAAY/SEE at the Liverpool Biennial
Neon

Photo credits: Rob Battersby, courtesy Liverpool Biennial

NGAAY/SEE is a new commission for the Liverpool Biennial, uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things curated by Khanyisile Mbongwa. Brook is also presenting his 2018 video work SMASH IT at the World Museum as part of the biennial program.

NGAAY/SEE is a new large-scale neon work at Stanley Dock, (‘ngaay’ is a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘to see’). The work combines languages including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Wiradjuri, Urdu, Mandarin and Welsh to symbolises the cultural and historical linguistic diversity of Merseyside.

It is at once a celebration and a critical examination of this diversity, highlighting its origins in the city’s history of trade in goods and enslaved peoples. The River Mersey acts as a witness to these histories of violence and extraction which remain mapped across the world today: Sydney, Australia is home to a place called Birkenhead Point and a suburb named Liverpool. These duplicate monikers serve as reminders of the British colonial exploits that span the globe.

Through centring Indigenous language and perspectives, Andrew’s work questions the limitations imposed by colonial power structures, historical amnesia, and stereotyping. Drawing on his Wiradjuri heritage Andrew disrupts Western conventions of space and time, to present alternative histories and ways of being.

The different languages present in NGAAY are a tribute and a point of connection between people who live in different cities yet share, like Liverpool a river and riverbed that holds memories and histories.

FEICIM - I see (Irish)
NGAAY - see (Wiradjuri)
GWELD - see(Welsh)
look (Urdu) دیکھو
NGINDUUGIRR - you (Wiradjuri)
NHÌN - look (Vietnamese)
দেখতে - to see (Bangla)
FEICH - look (Scottish Gaelic)
ACROSS SEE SEA
看 - look (Mandarin)
AGUA DE MAR - sea water (Spanish)

Liverpool Biennial
Tobacco Warehouse and World Museum
Liverpool, England
10 June - 17 September 2023