The Blue Highway is a sculpture installation that navigates the nuanced quest for connection and a sense of belonging to Indigenous cultural heritage. Ira Gold is an emerging artist, with Torres Strait, Japanese, Indonesian and European heritage. Growing up in Garramilla/Darwin on Larrakia Country and Mparntwe/Alice Springs Arrernte Country respectively. Ira’s practice seeks to explore those connections and what it means to be First Nations growing up outside of his culture.

The work is comprised of a series of hand-carved acrylic panels, representing windows of museum display cabinets. Ethnographic studies of First Nations culture often remove culturally significant objects outside of their communities and designed purpose, becoming another form of separation. Through physical tension and heat the panels are manipulated into something closely resembling water. The title The Blue Highway is a reference to a Torres Strait concept of a cultural passage that connects all Torres Strait Islanders to their Saltwater Country, a place of connection, learning, healing and navigation. Through this practice Ira examines how a barrier can become a medium of connection.

The work physically manifests abstract feelings of belonging. Initiating an ongoing process for Ira. The work has begun to develop relationships with his culture and Erub/Darnley Island family. The Blue Highway is fragmented pieces of an ocean landscape, a process of an ongoing journey. Responding to traditional practices of wayfinding used in sea-faring cultures for people to find their way home.