IN-DEPENDANCE by IBASHO is delighted to present ‘Restricted Images’, a solo exhibition by British artist Patrick Waterhouse, opening on 29 May 2025, during Antwerp Art Weekend.
Patrick Waterhouse (b. 1981, England) is an artist who explores the shifting nature of our understanding of the past. Through processes that play with narrative representation, his work sheds light on the construction of history and its origins.
‘Restricted Images’ is a photographic project made in collaboration with Warlpiri artists and the Warlukurlangu Art Centre in Australia’s Northern Territory. Collaboration plays a central role in Patrick Waterhouse’s practice, shaping the direction of his work through ongoing dialogue and engagement with the people and communities he photographs. In the making of ‘Restricted Images’, Waterhouse lived and worked with the Warlpiri communities of Yuendemu and Nyiripi over a five-year period, taking photographs and then inviting community members to “restrict” their images using traditional dot painting. By including participants in how they are portrayed, the project redefines agency within the context of photography and art.
In ‘Native Tribes of Central Australia’ (1899), ethnologists Francis J. Gillen and W. Baldwin Spencer documented the Aboriginal groups living near Alice Springs, with an emphasis on photographing rituals and ceremonies. Though pioneering for its time, their work failed to consider the cultural and personal consequences of such documentation on the lives of Aboriginal people. Their images exposed a disconnect between the researchers—intent on portraying “exotic natives in their natural state”—and the subjects, many of whom were unfamiliar with photography and its potential to violate privacy. These photographs often breached Aboriginal customs by revealing sacred sites and deceased individuals.
More than a century later, growing awareness of the legacy of colonialism has led to indigenous communities restricting the use of photography within their territories. Today, taking pictures in these areas is often prohibited and institutions limit access to the historical record. While such measures constitute a form of protection for Aboriginal people, they can also deprive them of the opportunity to be represented, and therefore acknowledged, as active participants in the history of their own country. Thousands of anthropological photographs remain stored in Australian and European archives, largely inaccessible out of respect for Aboriginal protocols. Only descendants of those depicted can grant access—leaving much of this material unseen and politically sensitive.
With the complex history of the photographic encounter in mind, Patrick Waterhouse produced photographs that were later modified by the subjects themselves or their relatives. As a counterpoint to colonial-era imagery, he created portraits and landscapes, which Warlpiri artists then transformed with traditional dot painting. These vibrant interventions reclaim authorship and foster new ways of visibility. ‘Restricted Images’ stands as a sustained effort to challenge and reimagine ideas of representation, authorship, and who controls the image.
Artists: Patrick Waterhouse
