AustLit

'Corpus Nullius/Blood Country is a work in which the artist pierces the two words that comprise the Latin phrase Terra Nullius, firstly into the uncured hide of a freshly slaughtered lamb and secondly into their own flesh, using small, pearl-headed needles.'

'In a performative action which is both delicate and viscerally powerful, Norman inscribes the word NULLIUS onto the skin of their chest, in a ritual gesture of complex reclamation, in which they declare their own body as belonging to no-one. This statement is troubled, however, by the presence of other bodies- those of animals, specifically sheep (a reference to the adage that the nation of Australia was "built on the sheeps back") reared on stolen land and slaughtered for their meat and skins- the inclusion of which brings broader questions of corporial and territorial ownership into the fray. A layered and haunting reflection on the question of dispossession, agency, and the relationship between body, ancestry and land.' (Source: Sarah-Jane Norman website)