BEN Quilty has brought his internationally recognised exhibition, Inhabit, to Bendigo.
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In this revolutionary exhibition Quilty explores Australia's gory history, one that he said was shrouded by a government desire to display a more peaceful history.
He said his exhibition explored the brutality of Australia's colonisation.
"My work really questions my own place in lineage," he said.
"As a white man telling the story I have a very different perspective."
Quilty said he looked at an event in the mid-1830s when many "aboriginal people were shot dead by two white men".
His multi-part series Inhabit features 16 portraits ranging from Captain Cook to the devil and a self-portrait, along with an elaborate bird cage featuring bronze cast skulls and fencing wire.
"That is a story that many governments have been nervous to tell," he said.
"I've always gone to dark places with my work but I really feel that those dark places and dark histories can unite a country.
"By confronting those histories people can see that as a negative thing.
"If we commemorated those sites (and times) we can live with another layer of history.
"To acknowledge and commemorate them is a powerful thing that can build a cultural history."
Also included in the exhibition are Evening Shadows Rorschach After Johnstone, Self Portrait Smashed Rorschach, Kuta Rorschach No 2, and Fairy Bower Falls Rorschach.
The latter shows a beautiful waterfall near Quilty’s home, the site of an Aboriginal massacre in the early 19th century.
Quilty said he hoped his exhibition - which opens on March 1 - would have an effect on his audience.