Berry will this month host the first Open Field art festival, showcasing contemporary art and performing artists across four days of performances, live music and events around the town.

The Bugle spoke to one of the artists who will feature at Open Field, Jaz Corr, a Dharawal woman and Kiama resident with three titles: a visual artist, an art teacher and a practitioner of Wayapa Wuurrk.

Jaz was asked to put in an expression of interest for an artwork at the festival, and immediately began looking for inspiration from the Berry township, its history and its environment.

Driving from Kiama to Vincentia every day for work, and reflecting on the Open Fields theme of intersections and interplay, Jaz took notice of the literal intersections built as part of the new Berry bypass.

Jaz says the ongoing road work was such a struggle for many commuters but has since become extremely beneficial for everyone who uses it on a daily basis. This inspired Jaz to use tar for her artistic medium as a direct reference to the new highway.

Next, Jaz looked at the story behind how Berry came to be. “It’s widely known that Alexander Berry and his brother, David, are the founders of Berry,” says Jaz. “There’s so much information out there regarding those two brothers.

“What we don’t talk about is the two black brothers that helped and actually assisted the Berry brothers to make the town what it is today.”

Jaz decided to paint Broughton Creek, named after one of the two brothers that helped Alexander Berry develop the area along with brother Brogher Creek. “Broughton is well known to have helped Alexander Berry in tracking and local knowledge, but there was a divide between the two black brothers,” Jaz says.

“He [Broughton] was helping the Berry brothers, but Brogher never agreed to that. So over time, Broughton was given rations for his great work and for assimilating well. Later in life, he rejected them and went back to his community and his brother.

Choosing community over the Berrys would have been a really difficult choice. We don’t talk about that story and we don’t talk about those black brothers, but we do talk about the Berrys.”

The artwork is painted within the void of the two cut outs of the Berry brothers marking the entrances to the town, or as Jaz puts it: “painting the missing black history that we don’t talk about.” She used rust to represent these two sculptures.

The artwork, which was recently renamed “Two Truths” will be on display at Open Fields in Berry, which will be held on 22-25 June.

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