Jasmine Miikika Craciun
Light of a Clear Blue Morning

‘I originally worked with stained glass to reference the churches and missions that had irreversibly changed Aboriginal peoples' lives and homes. This has now morphed into a way of sharing stories of my Nan and the joy that existed through these years despite the hardships. The stained glass harnesses the colours and the vibrancy of my Nan’s photography and reflects them back onto the audience to bathe in that joy as well.’ – Jasmine Miikika Craciun

Jasmine Miikika Craciun is a Barkindji and Malyangapa multidisciplinary artist working across painting, installation, textiles, and recently, stained glass. Her practice often draws from a rich family archive of photographs that trace the passage of Craciun’s Nan, Mum and Aunties from Wilcannia in remote New South Wales to the suburbs of Sydney. In this new co-commission for the Ideas Platform, Craciun transcribes both image and narrative into stained glass to venerate stories of community and resilience in the face of systemic racism.

Traditionally used for the dissemination of biblical stories, the medium of stained glass is entwined in Australia’s tragic histories of paternalistic missions established during the Stolen Generations, when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families were forcibly separated by the state. Recontextualised here for the Ideas Platform, Craciun deploys stained glass to displace the iconography of colonialism and create a shrine to her matriarchs, who maintained a sense of home and place despite dislocation from Country. As light filters through these images and bathes the space in vibrant colour, evoking the original photographs of the 1970s, the Ideas Platform transforms into a sanctuary where joy and family are revered.

This project is the ninth annual collaboration between Artspace and Parramatta Artists Studios (PAS), a partnership that supports curatorial dialogue, mentorship and advocacy for artists in Western Sydney.