Touchy Fearly - proppaNOW Exhibition - Fehily Contemporary 19th July, 2012 - Melbourne

proppaNOW recently had its first commercial exhibition in Melbourne at Fehily Contemporary in Collingwood.

For this show I wanted to challenge and extend certain elements that exist in my 'After the Flood' series.

Instead of painting the Aboriginal language groups i made casts of the names and froze the text with pigment and water. The language then melted over the landscape and resembled a bloodstain. These works are about what has been sacrificed and what continues to be sacrificed in order for Australia to exist in its current state of cultural amnesia.

 Ice melting - In progress

 

image credit: Toby Fehily

 image credit: Toby Fehily

 

image credit: Toby Fehily

Paintings Dried:

 image credit: Fehily Contemporary

  image credit: Fehily Contemporary

 image credit: Fehily Contemporary

Opening night:

 (bottom L-R: Gary Foley & Richard Bell & Tony Albert)

Artlink Launch in China, July 2012

Artlink Magazine launched a special edition of its 'Artlink Indigenous' fully translated into Mandarin in Beijing and Chengdu, China earlier this year. Djon Mundine OAM, Archie Moore, Zhou Xiaoping and myself were invited to launch this special edition and present our works to audiences in China. It was my first time overseas and it was the best!

 

Tambo Rural Residency, May 2012

Curator Kevin Wilson put together a residency program for 7 Artists to partake in Tambo, which is approximately 880Kms north west of Brisbane. Artists were invited and encouraged to respond to the town and residents with drawings, sketches and ideas about Public art. I decided to create an installation on the banks of the mighty Barcoo River and invited residents to the event which was held at night time. 

The installation was an animated text projection of the four Aboriginal nations from the region and had their approximate boundaries connected to the Barcoo river, It also featured glowing floodlines marking the recent high watermark from January's flooding.

The installation was captured and transformed into a video work.

 

 image courtesy: Greg Stonehouse

 

images courtesy: Gerard Hindle

 
Big thanks to Gerard who came out to Tambo also and filmed and edited the 'Banks of the Barcoo' 

After the Flood - Documentary
A very talented young local film maker Adric Watson made this documentary for our proppaNOW exhibition which is on at the Queensland State Library in Kuril Dhagun until September 2012.

AFTER THE FLOOD from a d r i c  w a t s o n on Vimeo.

Deep Water - SGAR (Spiro Grace Art Rooms) 2nd March, 2012
Solo Exhibition

Lie of the Land - Australian Emabassy, Washington DC February 2012
Exhibition Curated By Alex J. Taylor 

Funeral Songs - MONA FOMA, January 2012
Exhibition Curated By Daniel Mudie Cunningham

Daniel Mudie Cunningham Website 

After The Storm - Cairns Regional Gallery, August 2011
Exhibition curated by Averil Quail, Artistic Director CIAF

Art On James - New Farm 2011
Exhibition Curated By Level ARI 

I Used To Skate Once 7, 2011 
Exhibition Curated by Matt Brady 

Nine Lives Gallery Art Auction - Brisbane Floods 2011

NEWflames Residency - Canopy Artspace - Cairns 2011

I went to Cairns for the NEWflames Residency, during the 5 weeks I met some great people and completed the following body of works titled Toponyms.
Many thanks Annie Gamble Myer for her support to the development of emerging Indigenous artists, Renai Grace and fellow resident artist Shannon Brett!






Toponyms
Place names are an important aspect of culture and identity as they provide location where history, events, landscapes and people are remembered, celebrated and continued.

Toponyms are always reflective of the dominant culture and its position upon the land in which it occupies. Military topographical maps (circa 1935-41) of regions around Cairns and Cooktown are highlighted in these works. The use of language and basic cartographic symbology reveal a multilayered fluid landscape with dual histories & dual identities.

  
Mater Hospital Commission - 2010

Pay Attention ~ Tony Albert 2010

Earlier this year a good friend and amazingly talented Tony Albert very kindly invited me to participate in a project he was doing.

'Pay Attention' is a collaborative work with 25 of Tony's close friends. Each artist has created a thoughtful, individual work which collectively questions the problematic notion of “authenticity” in contemporary Aboriginal art and how the work of young Aboriginal artists is valued and interpreted in the art world.

The text is a direct quote taken from a lithograph by American artist Bruce Nauman held in the National Gallery of Australia. By referencing Nauman, Albert challenges the collection policies of some of the major Australian public art institutions whose collections, while reflecting international art trends, often fail to invest in what Albert and his peers recognise as significant indigenous art movements locally.

I feel very lucky to have contributed to this exhibition and admire Tony's strength and courage, below are some pictures of the process and exhibition which was showcased in the Roundabout Exhibition at the City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand in November 2010.














L - R: Megan Tamati-Quennell, Richard Bell, Shelley Jahnke, Megan Cope, Archie Moore & Laurie Nilsen.

Sunday At The Gallery - NAIDOC 2010

Maps Matts

This workshop was held on NAIDOC Day, We wove together maps of Australia seen from a number of perspectives; Aboriginal Map, Native Flora, the first Geological map, Minerals & Resource maps etc to create multi-layered landscapes and views of how we see our environment and national identity.

Images Courtesy of Queensland Art Gallery
Photographer: Ray Fulton

Special Thanks to Ben Havenaar & Tony Albert for coming and helping with the major collaborative map.

Vanity

The Wandering Room
at RAWSPACE, February 2010

To Heat, To Freeze, To Prick

This exhibition was curated by the Wandering Room and also exhibited the works of artists Madeleine Kelly & Elizabeth Willing.

'To Heat, To Freeze, To Prick' is the third installation of The Wandering Rooms Window Box Project at 99 Melbourne St, South Brisbane. That route you could often walk from West End to the City vis a vis if you prefer the road more traveled.

The artists, Madeleine Kelly, Megan Cope, and Elizabeth Willing have created ephemeral and intimate works, which all relate to the concept of flux. That which is delicate, fragile, and breakable. Using experimental materials, with an often minimal and neutral aesthetic, the power within these works is their simplicity and non-complicity to permanence. With reference to both architecture and the environment, the artists in ‘To Heat, To Freeze, To Prick’ take up various modes of ephemeral art making.

Vanity
2010

ARC Biennial - Fort Lytton

Marutchi



The soundscape for Marutchi will be reminiscent of a war chant once sang by my ancestors prior to engaging in battle. A text based projection work will accompany the audio as a visual reference to the definitions of tribal lands, languages and their peripheries. This work also highlights what was taken away from Aboriginal people in order for the West to expand and secure economic interests.


Fort Lytton was used throughout the first and second world wars and even earlier to defend our city against possible enemy invasion and was a key quarantine centre through which many members of our multicultural community passed through on their entry to Australia.

Images from opening night:




Special thanks to Dominic Stephens for assisting with the production of the sound, Joshua & Dennis Walker for their cultural input.