I first saw Nicole Monk’s exhibition Owning the Moon at the opening in one of the UNSW Art and Design internal galleries: AD Space. The entrance to the exhibition was filled with people, and conversation filled the foyer. The exhibition invites you to put sheep oil on my hands, unconsciously choosing sheep over the native emu oil, I placed part of Nicole’s artwork into my hands that I could smell and feel. Pulling back the curtain to walk in I became of putting oil onto the dense fabric that kept the show’s lights contained. Walking into the exhibition, I realised the show engaged an ignored sense in art galleries. The air was filled with the smell of all the natural materials in the room. This became my direction, trying to find what I could smell; maybe getting too close to everything, sticking my nose into the ochre filled measuring jars. Then bending down to smell the wood that had been placed on the ground, lit up, to emphasise its presence — the imperfect organic matter resting on the polish wooden floor of the university gallery.

Measuring Cultures, the artwork consisting of the jars and ochre, speaks volumes when addressing the truths in Australia’s history and how the ramifications of the stolen generation persist today. Colonisation may be a thing of the past, but the effects are present today. The first viewing of the work doesn’t give a sense of how profound Monk’s message is, yet it stays with you. Once you begin to unfold the meanings it’s impossible to escape them, leaving lasting memories that become obvious the longer you think about them.

Monk’s stay in Fowlers Gap, a former sheep station in the outback of Australia, has resonated with her. A metaphor has been created throughout the exhibition, giving Monk’s reflection on identity to inanimate objects. The hybrid piece, Sheemu hangs from the ceiling, with its organic smell coming from the sheep wool and emu feathers. The work acknowledges black and white cultures being manifested into one entity and in the photograph series Which Way, Sheemu jumps around the shed — displacing our viewpoint, calling you closer to look harder at what you are seeing.

The title piece Owning the Moon does that as well, Monk has encapsulated the moon within the typical backyard wooden fence. The moon bounces around, captive on its land. The domestic element to the fence makes the imprisoned moon even more devastating, realising the stolen generation happened in people's backyards. Monk has created metaphorical pieces that reflect what her Aboriginal ancestors went through within colonisation and highlights the identity crisis that exists today.

but as morn becomes day/ and the shadows clear/ it illuminates truth/ as fences appear/ carving our landscape/ as heartstrings are strung/ the desecration of land/ that’s already been done

The show resonates a poignant reaction, and this was manifested within the second time I saw the exhibition. I was a spectator to an intimate moment between Nicole and her husband and child. She was singing songs to the baby; I felt the emotional tie that Nicole has to her work and the bond that she was sharing through her multimedia show. The curtain became in that moment both something that had invited me in and also, that had left me out. The artworks that Nicole has created are being shared with you, but the exclusivity excludes me from the conversation. You can feel that these pieces of works are an extension of Monk’s personality and the exhibition had become a safe space for her family and her art.