– Exhibition in Focus - Museum of Contemporary Art

PRIMAVERA 2015: YOUNG
AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS
– Exhibition in Focus
ENCOUNTER
THE ARTISTS
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Introduction
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PRIMAVERA 2015
– Introduction
Primavera is the MCA’s annual exhibition of Australian
artists aged 35 years or under. Curated by Sydney-based
Aboriginal artist and curator, Nicole Foreshew, Primavera
2015 showcases works by artists Abdul Abdullah, Heather
Douglas, Taloi Havini, Vincent and Vaughan O’Connor,
Steaphan Paton and Lucy Simpson.
With diverse backgrounds and practices, Foreshew has
brought these artists together by drawing connections
between their shared concern to rethink and reclaim ideas
around culture, history, land and identity.
Explore the role of the curator in Primavera 2015 by
encountering the artists through the themes Foreshew
has identified across their works. This Encounter explores
the themes: Recalling History, Land and Power, and
Challenging Perceptions.
PRIMAVERA
2015
EXHIBITION
IN
FOCUS
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RECALLING HISTORY
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“
Recalling History
… the artists share
similar motives to revive,
maintain, recall and
strengthen culture,
to repatriate what has been taken...
to remember the past, to seek out the
forever present future...
”
Nicole Foreshew, 2015, Primavera 2015 catalogue, p. 35
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Recalling History
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List all the methods of recording and remembering history
that you can think of.
Why is it important to remember history?
WARM UP
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Lucy Simpson, yilaalu (detail), 2015
paperclay, ironbark string, feathers, ochre
clay: 4.5 x 35 x 9.5 cm, 8 x 17 x 21.5 cm, 25 x 43 x 2 cm
string: 200cm x 800 cm approx.
Image courtesy and © the artist
Photograph: Nicole Foreshew
Recalling History
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Recalling History
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Born in 1981, Lucy Simpson is a Sydney-based artist
and designer, and a Yuwaalaraay woman belonging to
the freshwater Country in Walgett, north-west NSW.
Simpson’s practice is deeply connected to her Country
and culture, and influenced by her concern to maintain
links between the past and present.
To form these links in her work, Simpson investigates
museum collections of Indigenous history and culture.
In yilaalu (2015), she takes back ownership of these
histories by using materials from the land to create
objects that reflect and revive Yuwaalaraay history and
cultural practices.
Lucy Simpson, yilaalu (detail), 2015
paperclay, ironbark string, feathers, ochre
clay: 4.5 x 35 x 9.5 cm, 8 x 17 x 21.5 cm, 25 x 43 x 2 cm
string: 200cm x 800 cm approx.
Image courtesy and © the artist
Photograph: Nicole Foreshew
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Recalling History
Heather Douglas, Irititja Tjuta 3 (Pintji Irititja Tjipiku), 2015
ochre, beeswax and sand on water tank panel
153 x 90 x 1 cm approx.
Image courtesy the artist and Tapatjatjaka Art Centre, Titjikala, Northern Territory © the artist
Photograph: Nicole Foreshew
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Recalling History
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Heather Douglas was born in 1994 in Titjikala (formerly Maryville
Station), Northern Territory, home to the Arrernte, Luritja and
Pitjantjatjara people. Working across printmaking, drawing,
sculpture, film and music, Douglas’ practice focuses on the life and
land of her community.
In her work for Primavera 2015, Douglas recalls the experiences of
her family working on Maryville Station from the 1940s as stockmen,
station hands and domestic servants. Senior artists from the
community shared memories of these times with Douglas, who then
interpreted their stories onto the panels of a water tank using ochre
sticks and red sand. By documenting her stories onto this tank,
Douglas reclaims a structure that her family once worked on and
used, and which sustained life at the Station.
Heather Douglas, Irititja Tjuta 1 (Minyma
jutangku Iriti Katangka Tjungkula Katingi
Kapi Tjukitja), 2015
ochre, beeswax and sand on water tank panel
153 x 90 x 1 cm approx.
Image courtesy the artist and Tapatjatjaka Art Centre,
Titjikala, Northern Territory © the artist
Photograph: Nicole Foreshew
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Recalling History
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In their artworks, Lucy Simpson and Heather Douglas recall history by using cultural practices and
telling family stories.
How could you recall your family’s history?
Can you think of a particular cultural practice or tradition
you would use?
DISCUSSION
IDEAS
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Recalling History
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How do Simpson’s and Douglas’ artworks maintain culture?
Why do you think it is significant that they do this?
DIG
DEEPER
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LAND & POWER
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“
Land & Power
In my life and creative experience,
art is linked with the reclamation or
reinforcement of identity, story, language,
and land. It has played a key role in
facilitating activism, self-determination and
collective action on social, political, economic
and environmental change issues.
”
Nicole Foreshew, 2015, Primavera 2015 catalogue, p. 19
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Land & Power
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Draw a picture of what you imagine the land you’re on now
would have looked like 200 years ago. How has it changed?
Draw another one showing what it might look like in 200
years’ time.
• What does your first picture show about how the land has
changed over the past 200 years?
• What kinds of ideas or predictions did you use to create your
second drawing?
QUICK
ACTIVITY
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Land & Power
Vincent & Vaughan O’Connor, Millionth Acre (production
image), 2015
laser etched and oxidised steel plates, pine saplings (Pinus radiata), copper wire
stock, nickel silver wire stock, amplifier components, speaker cones, custom
electronics, deer antler, 3D prints, and plywood
2 panels: 120 x 60 cm each
object field: 150 x 600 x 20 cm approx.
Image courtesy and © the artists
Photograph: Nicole Foreshew
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Land & Power
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Born in 1985, Vincent and Vaughan O’Connor are
Sydney-based twin brothers who work as solo and
collaborative artists, writers and curators. Together,
they create works that include electronic devices,
sound generators and photography to explore
technology, history and the natural world.
In their installation, Millionth Acre (2015), Vincent and
Vaughan O’Connor have used a range of mapping
processes to investigate the state forests near Oberon,
NSW. For example, the artists have mapped the
forest by recording sounds from trees and wind, and
laser etching the sound waves onto steel plates. The
O’Connor brothers have explored the state forest as a
site that is both natural and manufactured for economic
use, considering ideas around land use and ownership
in Australia, large-scale deforestation and conservation.
Vincent O’Connor, Rubble Mountain, 2011
laser cut and laser etched mild steel
Photograph: Vincent O’Connor
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Land & Power
Left: Taloi Havini, Middle Tailings #1 (Bougainville Copper Ltd,
Panguna mine), 2015
digital print on aluminium
59.4 x 42 cm
Image courtesy and © the artist
Right: Taloi Havini, Middle Tailings #2 (Bougainville Copper Ltd,
Panguna mine), 2015
digital print on aluminium
59.4 x 42 cm
Image courtesy and © the artist
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Land & Power
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Born in 1981 in Arawa, Autonomous Region of Bougainville,
Taloi Havini and her family were politically exiled to Australia
in 1990 amid civil war in Bougainville. Working across a range
of disciplines, Havini’s art-making responds to the impacts of
colonisation and conflict in Bougainville.
In Middle Tailings #1, #2, #3 (Bougainville Copper Ltd, Panguna
mine) (2015), Havini documents the ecological devastation
caused by the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville. Located
close to Havini’s birthplace, these mining interests led to the civil
war that largely destroyed Arawa and resulted in the loss of up
to 20,000 lives.
Taloi Havini, Middle Tailings #3 (Bougainville
Copper Ltd, Panguna mine), 2015
digital print on aluminium
59.4 x 42 cm
Image courtesy and © the artist
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Land & Power
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Both the O’Connors and Havini have explored ways of documenting an environment.
List 5 different ways you could document the environment you’re
in right now.
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ACTIVITY
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CHALLENGING PERCEPTIONS
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“
Challenging Perceptions
These seven artists
convey something of
the experience of being
labelled and categorised,
a situation where only ‘similarities’ or
‘difference’ can exist.
”
Nicole Foreshew, 2015, Primavera 2015 catalogue, p. 18
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Challenging Perceptions
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“History is written by the victors”
What do you think this statement means?
• Can you think of any examples of when history has been written by the “victors”?
• How could this statement also apply to the way the media portrays certain
groups of people or current events?
WARM UP
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Challenging Perceptions
Steaphan Paton, Cloaked Combat, 2013
bark, carbon fibre, synthetic polymer resin, synthetic
polymer paint
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Yvonne Pettengell Bequest, 2013
Image courtesy the artist and Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne © the artist
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Challenging Perceptions
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Born in Mildura in 1985, Steaphan Paton is a multidisciplinary, Melbourne-based artist and descendant
of the Gunai and Monaro-Ngarigo peoples. His work
is concerned with colonisation, cultural conflict, and
exposing and retelling hidden histories.
In Primavera 2015, Paton has created videos of himself
dressed in camouflage and shooting arrows into his
hand-carved Gunai shields. Paton’s performance and
the pierced Gunai shields make reference to frontier
warfare, challenging historical denials of the ways
Aboriginal people actively defended themselves during
these conflicts.
Steaphan Paton, Cloaked Combat #2 (still), 2013
single-channel video
duration: 0:37 minutes
Image courtesy the artist and
Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne © the artist
MCA
Abdul Abdullah, Caliban (production image), 2015
oil on board
270 x 270 cm
Image courtesy and © the artist
Photograph: Jessica Maurer
Challenging Perceptions
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Challenging Perceptions
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Born in Perth in 1986, Abdul Abdullah is a Sydneybased artist whose work is influenced by his
experiences as a seventh-generation Australian and
Muslim growing up in a post-September 11 world.
In Primavera 2015, Abdullah presents portraits of young
Australian Muslims, exploring issues of identity and
marginalisation while confronting common perceptions
of terrorism, race and religion.
Abdul Abdullah, Sycorax, 2015
oil on board
270 x 270 cm
Image courtesy and © the artist
Photograph: Jessica Maurer
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Challenging Perceptions
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Consider and discuss the ways Paton has responded to colonial history, and Abdullah depicted
young Australian Muslims.
How do these artworks challenge the ways historical events and
cultural groups have been portrayed in history and by the media?
DIG
DEEPER
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Reflection
“Primavera 2015 doesn’t
scream a solution
to the artists’ varied concerns and
experiences…It creates a place to
think about who we are and how we
can transcend borders of difference to
meet together again.”
”
Nicole Foreshew, 2015, Primavera 2015 catalogue, p. 35
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