In 2014 Sangeeta Sandrasegar designed Everything has two witnesses, one on earth and one in the sky specifically for the exhibition Current Exchanges held at the Dovecot Studio in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The ATW and the Dovecot Studio have had an ongoing relationship of exchange. When founded in 1976, the ATW was modelled on the Dovecot Studio. Current Exchanges allowed artists and weavers the opportunity to explore multiple identities emerging from colonial and indigenous histories, while considering what a future Commonwealth should examine and express. Sandrasegar was selected specifically by the ATW to respond to the brief.

Sandrasegar was adamant on drawing attention to the post-colonial gaze possessed by Australia. She sought to consider the complexities of Australian identities while acknowledging the symbolism of the sea that separates Australia from Britain and led to colonisation:

“In Australia the organisation provokes a further complexity of our identity: the debates surrounding remaining a constitutional monarchy or becoming a republic. As we emerge more confident in our location in the Southern Hemisphere, and in our contemporary relationships with now former British Colonies, it is necessary that we reflect not only upon our complex multicultural and governmental solutions but begin to interrogate realities threatening our shared common wealth.

Looking forward, and towards sustained relationships I cannot see past the seas that have brought us in contact with one another. They have connected us for centuries through early trade, conquests, war, peace times; they have been rich and abundant. They have given themselves to us thoroughly whilst we continue to pillage them, through industrial fishing, oil spills, and mining pollutants, the list goes on. How can we at the beginning of this new century propose to sustainably move forward? This is a complex intercultural question as we grow with vastly different economies, societies and politics.

Yet sea life knows not our national boundaries – our carved up oceans. Our pollutants likewise roam freely, ignorant to national lines they float and blur into one another, mobilized toxic masses that effect not only our oceans, but marine life, smaller water ways and potentially our own lives and health. As the Indigenous people of Australia have understood ‘Everything has two witnesses, one on earth and one in the sky’. So we too must begin to listen to such testimony. We need to work together to not lose any more of this common wealth, just as we have sought to do in our homelands.”

ATW weaver Sue Batten was the sole weaver working on this project.