Art Forum: Aidan Hartshorn

Aidan Hartshorn is Walgalu (Wolgalu/​Wolgal) and Wiradjuri artist whose ancestral lands reside in the High Country of the Kosciusko National Park and foothills of the Snowy Mountains as well as the Riverina region of NSW.

Through his practice, Hartshorn examines the environmental and cultural impacts of commercial industrialisation within Australia’s high country. Through his cultural connections to Wolgal and Wiradjuri Country, his work is informed through cultural knowledge and making processes passed down by his father, and speaks to the ongoing disruptions due to the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme that has submerged parts of Wolgalu Country and culturally powerful sites.

Addressing the intersections of colonisation, environmental degradation, and cultural loss, the choice of industrial materials within Aidan’s work closely correlate to the aesthetics of electricity production, dam construction, and infrastructure, drawing these intersections together with his cultural and artistic practice. Reflecting on the past, cultural loss, and particularly resilience, Aidan’s practice focusses on addressing what remains while forming discourse of cultural continuation within the present.

Image: Aidan Hartshorn, Yiramir Mayiny (River People), 2024, installation view, Primavera 2024: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2024, printed vinyl on aluminium, image courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia © the artist, photograph: Zan Wimberley