What the Dark Remembers - Mariana del Castillo Exhibition

What the Dark Remembers draws on Mariana del Castillo's lived experience of migration and cultural inheritance. Del Castillo was born in Ecuador, from a mestizo background shaped by Indigenous knowledge alongside European colonial histories. In her childhood, the Black Witch moth, Ascalapha odorata, is regarded as an omen of death and transformation. After migrating to Australia, she encountered the Bogong moth, Agrotis infusa, whose seasonal movement connects multiple First Nations peoples to Country, ceremony, and ecological knowledge.

The exhibition is an installation of moth-like structures made from repurposed fabric, eco-printed using eucalyptus leaves, and hand-stitched with cotton and glow-in-the-dark thread.