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Repetition is key to re-shaping the past in Gough’s works and numerous references and motifs
are to be found in between the galleries. Fugitive History (the escape) (2007) and Escape 1 (diptych)
(2007) retell a story found in newspaper records of a Tasmanian Aboriginal girl taken from her
family to live with settler couple James and Anne Briggs, when she escapes out the window. Two
gilt frames from TMAG hold opulent portraits of each of the Briggs (c.1853), but a representation
of the girl appears only through Gough’s re-etching of the words of her escape using different
materials (linocut, wool, fly wire, bull kelp). We do not know what happens to her after the escape,
part of Gough’s provocation to honour the missing and suggest their history defies the western
historical record.In ‘Tense Past’ Gough attends to the double entendre within the title: the arrangements
of colonial artefacts dealing in the representation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people and
their country, placed in tandem with her sculpture, video and sound works. This pairing re-
contextualises such documents past and invites the viewer to re-read western historical records.
At times the sheer amount of colonial artefacts outweighs easy access to the artist’s work. Gough’s
prolific and varied artistic output on its own would make an entirely different exhibition. The
strength of ‘Tense Past’ is its ability to reposition the Museum’s orientation to its own collection,
showing the past is as much a contrivance as those that make it.Olivia Koh is an artist based in Melbourne.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Until 3 November, 2019
HobartHunting Ground (haunted), 2018, film stills
Courtesy the artist and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart