Graveyards in Between #8, from the series Graveyards in Between

Robert Fielding is a contemporary Australian artist, emerging curator and writer of Pakistani, Afghan, Western Arrernte, and Yankunytjatjara descent, who lives in Mimili Community in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. He grew up in Quorn, South Australia; his father, Bruce Fielding, had been forcibly removed from Mimili in 1931 and taken to Colebrook Home in Quorn as part of the government's then practice of assimilating Aboriginal people. In 1998, Robert Fielding, accompanied by his family, made a return to Mimili.

Fielding began his artistic career as a painter and an art worker in the Mimili Maku Art Centre in 2005, working closely with many of the artists whose works feature in the Gallery’s collection, particualy those of the Pumani family. Fielding has since expanded his practice to include film, printmaking, photography and installation, while also trying his hand at occasional curatorial endeavours. His attraction to photography began through his work as an art worker in the art centre, after having training sessions in photography to assist in the documentation of art works. Fielding found that a camera had more potential to convey his concepts while marrying together Anangu and Western ways of being, echoing his personal experience of living both in the Anangu and Western worlds.

Of this series, Fielding noted: 'The 77 kilometre road between my home in Mimili community and the neighbouring community of Indulkana is scattered with car wrecks (mutaka katalypa). I call them 'graveyards in between'. Every car holds the stories of its owners and the passengers it once carried. Through the process of selecting certain cars, painting and illuminating them, I'm bringing back to life something long thought dead.'