THE REVENGE OF GENRES – Contemporary Australian Art
Exhibition Liège (Belgium) and Paris ~ REVENGE OF GENRES -“Le revanche des genres”
“Le revanche des genres”
Synopsis
Indigenous art emerged in Australia around sixty thousand years
ago and has evolved since then through time and history. Two
centuries of colonial oppression and assimilation policy have
deeply modified the structure of indigenous groups; their rights,
their languages; their customs; and hence their freedom.
However their culture and identity have been maintained through
great capacities of adaptation and innovation. Today indigenous
art is now considered as one of the most important artistic
movements in the twentieth century.
In the 1970’s, Contemporary Aboriginal art emerged in Central
Australia. At this time Elders wished to preserve and perpetuate
aesthetic, cultural, political and social traditions. They used
new technologies, acrylic, sand, rock and their own bodies to
transfer their ancestral knowledge. This clear
decompartimentalisation of genres has thus modified the original
function of aboriginal art; which was originally more focused on
transmission than exhibition…
These new artistic forms encourage indigenous and non-indigenous
people to engage in an inter-cultural dialogue. Indigenous arts
have always been at the centre of cultural exchanges in the Asia-
Pacific zone. This exhibition shows these links between artists of
different origins, born or working on the Australian territory.
The exhibition questions the notions of border; of nationality;
cultural heritage and the pertinence of categories and genres such
as Australian art, Aboriginal art or so-called “first art”…
The curatorial rationale seeks to subvert the notion of ‘genre’ as
definition of a general idea; class of beings, or objects that
share commonalities. The exhibition will reveal the discourses
used by artists from the Pacific region, to resist; struggle;
play; control or distinguish themselves from these categories.
‘The Revenge of Genres’ exhibition will explore the multiple
identities of Australia: religious, artistic and philosophical.
Selected artworks include those that relate to different human
ontology’s and their representations, and works that encourage
discussion about the dichotomies between nature, culture and the
construction of reality. Landscape will be a key connector
throughout this exhibition, and audiences will be presented with
imagery that celebrates dreams and forgotten myths.
A large component of the exhibition will be devoted to new media
including video and sound, and the remainder of works include a
cross-section of contemporary painting, sculpture and
installation. Each exhibition will be accompanied by lectures,
performances and videos by the selected artists, as well as
workshops that aim to both stimulate the debate regarding the
definition of international contemporary art and cultural
practice.
*List of artists:
Twenty four artists have been selected :
Tracey Moffatt
Rosella Namok
Jenny Fraser
Vernon Ah Kee
Tony Albert
Archie Moore
Chantal Fraser
Keren Ruki
Prins
Dacchi Dang
Simone Eisler
Tania Mason
George Milaypuma Gaykamangu
Michael Mungula
Barbara Gibson Nakamarra
Topsie Sampson Napurrula
Beryl Barnes Nakamara
Mona Napaltjarri Rockman
Judy Napaltjarri Walker
Biddy Nungarrayi
Alice Kelly Napaltjarri
Rosie Tasman Napurrula
Lily Hargraves Nungurrayi
Margaret Martin Nungurrayi.
*Educational activities
Round-table : the question of genres in Art.
Sunday 14 October, 1-3pm
At Les Brasseurs
In presence of :
-B. Glowczewski, director of research at the National Center of
Scientific Research, EHESS and Collège de France, author of
numerous books and CD-roms on Australian Indigenous.
-Géraldine Le Roux, curator of the exhibition and PhD student at
EHESS and University of Queensland.
-Lucienne Strivay, co-curator of the exhibition, senior lecturer
at University of Liège
-and 4 artists : Dacchi Dang, Simone Eisler, Chantal Fraser and
Archie Moore
Conferences of European specialists, with projection.
Salle académique place du XX août
Friday 12 October – 8pm
Barbara Glowczewski, « Soulever la poussière en dansant c’est
comme peindre en chantant »
Tuesday 23 October – 8pm
Jessika De Largy-Healy (EHESS-Paris, University of Melbourne),
« Des pistes ancestrales aux voies du futur : la quête ancestrale
de Joe Neparrnga Gumbula »
Friday 26 October – 8pm
Franca Tamisari (Adjunct professor, University of
Queensland/Université de Venise) « L’art de la rencontre : audace,
drame et subterfuge des tactiques performatives »
Thursday 8 November – 8pm
Géraldine Le Roux, « La parole des ancêtres dans les communautés
urbaines du Pacifique ; esthétique de la politique et politique
des arts »
Projections of movies :
Salle Gothot
Presented by Lucienne Strivay and Jérémy Hamers
Wednesday 17 October at 8.15pm : David McDougall, Good-Bye Old Man
Friday 19 October at 8.15pm : Ian Dunlop, Madarrpa Funeral at
Gurkawuy
Monday 29 October at 8.15pm : Wayne Jowandi Barker et Barbara
Glowczewski, L’esprit de l’ancre
Le Parc
Monday 22 October at 8.15pm : Ten Canoes, Rold De Heer
Le Churchill
Wednesday 7 November at 8.15pm : Beneath Clouds, Ivan Sen
*Animations and visits on request
appropriate cultural activities will be given to disabled people
on Friday 26 October.
Reservation : marie@ainu.fr
*The curatorial team
Géraldine Le Roux, Chairwoman of the association Diff’Art Pacific,
is currently finishing a PhD in anthropology at the Ecole des
Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris and at Queensland
University, Brisbane, Australia.
This free-lance curator has organized the exhibitions « Every Man
is an Island », Brisbane, 2007; « Perpetual movement. Contemporary
Australian art », Saint-Tropez ; « Stories from the Earth and the
Sea. Aboriginal paintings from Lockhart River, Australia »
Lorient, France, 2006 ; « Urban Art from Pacific », St-Auvent & St
Tropez, France, 2005 and « Dreamed landscapes : Aboriginal
contemporary Artists from Balgo Hills », Marseille, France, 2003.
She regularly writes articles and gives lectures, both in France
and overseas. geraldine2.leroux@wanadoo.fr
Co-curator of the exhibition, anthropologist Lucienne Strivay,
focuses her research on relationships between humans and non-
humans. She lectures anthropology of nature and intercultural
mediation at University of Liège.
*Artspaces :
13 October – 10 November 2007
Les Brasseurs, Liège (Belgium)
Open from Wednesday to Saturday from 3 to 6 pm and on appointment.
Closed on the 1st of November.
Located in a massive industrial warehouse in the heart of Liège,
les Brasseurs has carried on a policy based on production,
promotion and diffusion of artworks made by visual artists since
1993. In 10 years, more than 100 artists were given the chance to
exhibit their work in a total freedom and to show the results of a
research, a step in their career.
Rather laboratory of ideas than glass-windows, les Brasseurs is
also a place to exchange, a space for talk and conviviality, open
to all the faces of contemporary artistic creation.
Musicians, singers, actors and dancers have followed each other.
Writers, historians of art and critics have hosted round tables,
lectures and symposiums, in order to inform the visitors and to
improve the understanding in contemporary art.
Neither gallery, nor academy, l’Espace Brasseurs is the result of
people who want to give another approach of art reviving with
dialogue, exchange and freedom of thought.
Les Brasseurs – ASBL – 6 rue des brasseurs, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Tel : +32/042214191 Fax : +32/042370791
Email : les.brasseurs@skynet.be Website: www.brasseurs.be
From 10 January to 3 February 2008
Cité internationale des Arts, Paris
Located in the heart of Paris, la Cité internationale des Arts has
expressed for more than 40 years a promotion of cultural and
interdisciplinary exchange. It provides a residential platform for
artists from all around the world.
18, rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, 75180, Paris Cedex 04 . Tel : (33)1 42 78 71 72
citedesarts@citedesartsparis.net
*Co-production / Partners
This exhibition is co-produced by Diff’Art Pacific association and
Ainu company.
Diff’Art Pacific is a non-profit organization (ruled by the French
law of 1901) based in Paris, France. Its aims is to promote the
artistic creation of the Pacific area, focusing on its
contemporaneousness and its recent entry into the world art
market. Diff’Art operates actively with an international network
of specialists, gallery owners and artists (Australia, New-
Zealand, Belgium, Italy and France).
http://www.diffart-pacific.com/
Aïnu is a private company specialised in conservation-restoration,
in storage and installation of exhibitions. Its experiences
stretches from different museums in France (Musée du Quai Branly,
Musée du Louvre, Musée historique de Strasbourg, Musée Guimet,
Vuitton,…)to international projects(Japan, USA, Chili, South
Africa…)
Les Brasseurs, the University of Liège, la province de Liège
(Affaires culturelles), le cinéma Le Parc-Le Churchill and the
FERuig have been deeply involved in this project, helping for the
logistics and the editing of the bilingual catalogue.
The exhibition is supported by Queensland Indigenous Arts
Marketing and Export Agency.
*The artists and their artworks
Vernon Ah-Kee
Vernon Ah Kee was born in 1967, from Waanji and Yidindji people,
North Queensland. His work denounces the racial exclusion
mechanisms that corrupt the social, economic, cultural and politic
systems of modern societies. Through questioning and direct
confrontation, he interrogates the common responsibility and makes
the visitor asking himself about his own feelings and behavior.
Vernon Ah Kee often uses « I », « We », « You » in his minimal
works. Through the semiotic of these pronouns, his words gain
weight and gravity until they trouble the visitor and push him to
react. He does not want to establish another Truth but to make the
spectator thinking about power of images and words.
His drawings are a series of family portraits, inspired by
ethnographic photographs taken during the 1920s by the Australian
anthropologist Tindale. Although they are very similar, his
portraits reveal proud, dignity and strength. We can feel the
disturbing emergence of presence described by Walter Benjamin.
This « net of crossed temporalities » (Gunther) allows him to take
the control back and to give back a proudness to all these
Indigenous people who once had been forced to be portrayed. He
reactivates the Word and so the body becomes the vector of an
inviolable memory.
Vernon Ah Kee, tolerance, 2005, impression digitale sur
papier. Collection de l’artiste
Vernon Ah Kee, Leonard Andy, 2004, impression
digitale sur mylar d’un dessin au fusain. Collection de
l’artiste
*Dacchi Dang
Dacchi Dang arrived in Australia in the 80’s after the fall of
Saigon when thousands of immigrants ran away from their country.
Dacchi Dang has been remarked by its installation The Boat,
presented at the Asia Australia Arts Centre’s Gallery 4a in 2001.
The Boat reconstructs the boat-people experience with a
reconstruction of a life-size vessel, and to accentuate the
experience, Dacchi has created a series of photomontages inside
the vessel.
The installation showed for the exhibition is entitled Liminal and
it is composed of 9 photogravures presented on round surfaces,
sitting on a circular axe. The setting invites to contemplation
and meditation, whereas the photos explore identity mechanisms and
collective memories.
Dacchi Dang, Liminal, 2006, série de 9 photogravures. Collection de l’artiste
*Jenny Fraser
Jenny Fraser was born in 1971 from Yuganbeh/Munuljahli background,
North Queensland. She is based in Brisbane. Recognized as well in
Australia as abroad, (Biennale of Contemporary Art of Mexico;
Ataneo Museum of Contemporary Art, Yucatan), Jenny uses all
variety of media – digital photography, video, installation,
Internet – to evoke the contemporaneousness of Aboriginal society.
She founds inspiration into advertising communication methods and
put shock formulas inside her works.
By exploring several movies such as Wind, Zoolander, Like Water
for Chocolate, Blade and Utu, Jenny Fraser picks up sequences she
considers to be revealing of a certain vision of a colonial world:
jokes, popular expressions, romantic visions, stereotypes… This
video entitled “Name that movie” explores the representation of
Indigenous people by the mainstream through the 20th century.
Jenny Fraser, Faster food, 2005, photographie numérique
dans une boîte lumineuse en aluminium. Collection de
Jenny Fraser, It’s all about Control, 2005, photographie
l’artiste
numérique. Collection de l’artiste
Jenny Fraser, Mumsy’nt, 2005, photomontage numérique sur
Jenny Fraser, Refector or Director, 2007, photomontage à
papier photographique. Collection de l’artiste
partir d’extraits du DVD Name that Movie. Collection de
l’artiste
*Rosella Namok
Rosella Namok was born in 1979 in Lockhart River, in Cape
York, a tropical area in North-east Australia.
She works thick acrylic paint with a knife or her finger. Her
early works figure in a conceptual or nearly cinetic style the
genealogy of her community, in particular the family ties
that rule the matriarchal unions.
Namok worked recently on the sunset variations on mangrove
landscapes.
She was nominated in 1999 for the Young Australian Of the Year
prize in the « art » category ; in 2003 she received the
Australian Centenary Medal for the services she has done to
her community and to Aboriginal Art. On this same year, she
won the High Court of Australian Centenary Art Price for the
hundred-year old of the Australian High Court of Justice. She
also has been ranked many times among the 50 more interesting
Australian artists in the art market by the famous magazine
Australian Art Collector.
Rosella Namok, Sun Shower, 2005, acrylique sur toile. Ubach, Galerie Brit’s Art & Promotion (Allemagne)
*Chantal Fraser
Chantal Fraser was born in New-Zealand and is from a Samoan
background. She grew up in Queensland, Australia. She is a
self-taught artist.
Observing her surroundings and more specifically the
decoration of her parents’ house – multicoloured flowers,
photos, basketry -Chantal Fraser operates a critical distance
towards identity representations.
This repetition of observation, of the tactile connection with
the object and the study of common things took her to
dismantle those objects. The basketry she shows are
deconstructed then reconstructed. Thus the object gets another
form and is reduced to its
essence.
She has created for the exhibition the installation O Le
Taualuga.
Chantal Frazer, Headdressed from O Le Taualuga, 2007,
matériaux divers (serviettes en papier, tirages numériques).
Collection de l’artiste.
*Archie Moore
Born in a small town of Queensland in 1970, Archie Moore faced
daily and violently the racism against Aboriginal culture.
As an artist, he plays with words and linguistic to
deconstruct the ethnocentric conditioning of societies and to
think about the power of words and images.
Moore makes sculptures with words and installations that
interrogates the logical of Indigenous ethnographic
collections as well as the knowledge saved in books and
libraries.
For the exhibition, Archie Moore has created two artworks:
Tint in Congo et Whitehawks.
Archie Moore, Tint in Congo, 2007, sculpture Archie Moore, Whitehawks, 2007, huile sur toile. Collection de
en papier. Collection de l’artiste l’artiste
*Keren RUKI
Keren Ruki shares Maori and English backgrounds. She grew up
in Australia where she still lives. Raised next to her father
who was a dancer, in a foreign country, the discovering of her
culture is symbolic to what numerous Pacific Islanders from
Australia have experimented like the Samoan artist Chantal
Fraser or the Maori artist Prins. These children of migrants
share with their indigenous culture an ambiguous relationship,
between attraction and deny, between the knowledge learnt
during daily activities (moral values, songs, dances) and an
ironic vision against some artistic activities or a contesting
relationship towards colonial authorities (church, social
sciences…).
Keren Ruki twists the key-symbol of Maori culture – the tiki –
by enlarging it and associating it with bright colours and
synthetic materials. Those changes allow her to denounce the
kitsch and touristy/commercial exploitation of Indigenous
cultures. Reappropriateness of these New-Zealand memories
imply a critical thought on aesthetics and appropriateness
systems.
Keren Ruki, Tiki, 2002-2006, résine. Collection Keren Ruki, Sans titre, 2002-2007, veste de sécurité,
de l’artiste toile, tubes en plastique, fil de coton. Collection de
l’artiste
*Prins
Prins has exhibited many times with Keren Ruki. Their original
reinterpretations of their Maori traditions brought them
together. They consider themselves as the opposite of the
contradictions man / woman ; basketry / sculpture ;
inside/outside ; their work mix together to offer a critical
vision about classification systems ruled by social sciences
from the early 20th century carrying a lack of understanding
with the complex principles of reciprocity and swaps used by
so-called primitive societies.
The term graffiti comes from Italian word graffiare that means
to scratch. In Europe, we can find these drawings or writings
on stones, wood or other tender supports. We can easily
recognize Haro’s sophisticated tags, whose artist name is
Prins, by their oval shape, an endless format, curved letters
and a « scratchy » shine. Like Lee Quinones, Futura 2000 or
Fab Five Freddy, who started to graff on canvas at the end of
the 1970s in the USA, and exhibited in art galleries, Prins
quit this illegal practice in 1990s and has started painting
and sculpting. He reproduces curves patterns, like those of
architectural Maori vocabulary.
Prins, Sans titre, 2005, bois sculpté.
Collection de l’artiste
*Tania Mason
Australian artist, with an Anglo-Saxon background has
exhibited since 1999. Her last corpus of works is a series of
charcoal drawings and an installation of paper feathers and a
digital video.
Tania Mason associates classical drawings and new technologies
to create a poetic experience into the fall down of a bird
shoot. Desperate movement, absurd repetition, metaphor of a
sick world.
Tania Mason, Wall of Feathers: The Verge Of Vale, 2005-2006, 12 panneaux, plumes en papier sur toile
de coton. Collection de l’artiste.
Tania Mason, The Verge Of the Vale, 2005-2006, DVD, 60 min. Collection de l’artiste.
Tania Mason
Fallen, dessin au fusain sur papier
Fuzzy Feathers, dessin au fusain sur papier
Ostrich Feather, dessin au fusain sur papier
Birds Nest, dessin au fusain sur papier
Bleeding Feather, dessin au fusain sur papier
Falling, dessin au fusain sur papier
Collection de l’artiste
*Barbara Gibson Nakamarra (v. 1940-2000)
She was born in the Australian Central Desert (circa 19402000),
from Warlpiri and Mudpurra languages. She’s represented
by Lajamanu Artistic Cooperative, Occidental Desert.
« Barbara Gibson Nakamarra, called Nakakut, draw the link
between her Yawakiyi Plum Dreaming and Opposum janganpa – E-
shape tracks – with a Dreaming brother ngurlu Seed and Wallaby
Wampana whose tracks are shown by a line of hooks. Circles and
big semi-circles show sacred sites, among them
Yarturluyarturlu, where the bodies of Opposums fighters have
turned into granite, and the Rirrinjarra waterhole, made with
tide of Plums where the artist’s child spirit chose her mother
to rebirth. »
(in Pistes de Rêves, voyages en
terres aborigènes, eds du Chêne, 2005)
Barbara Gibson Nakamarra, Four Dreamings around
Yarturluyarturlu (Granites),1987, acrylique sur toile. Paris,
coll. privée
Barbara Gibson Nakamarra, Le rêve de la prune,
1996, acrylique sur toile. Paris, collection Jean-
Pierre Denys
*George Milaypuma Gaykamangu & Michael Mungula
The painting Midawarr, 2003, painted by George Milaypuma
Gaykamangu and Michael Mungula represents the hunting season,
Midawarr, at the end of the rain season when the food is
growing back. Yonlgu people observe lianas and dig around to
find food. The two painters have painted the Djambarrpuyngu
lianas from their mother’s clan.
The designs of rarrks is characteristic of Arnhem Land art.
Each clan and each person has its own design determined by
its size, colour and angle. The artists judge of the quality
of the paintings in function of radiance and the brilliance.
The painting Djalumbu Funeral Cycle represents a Gupapuyngu
funeral cycle which depicts the local animals : long-neck
turtles, wild duck, cat-fish, …
George Milaypuma Gaykamangu et Michael Mungula, George Milaypuma Gaykamangu, Cycle funéraire
Midawarr, lianes et papillons, 2003, peinture sur Djalumbu, 2002-2003, peinture sur écorce. Paris,
écorce. Paris, collection privée collection privée
*Simone EISLER
Anima Requiem is an installation by Simone Eisler; Australian
Artist from European background (mother Dutch and mixed
European, and father Romanian and Eastern European
background). This work explores the garden as a site for
transformation, and as a place to reengage people with the
creative forces of Nature and the cyclic processes of living
things. This imaginary garden reminds viewers of the
enchanting visions of fairy tales that have disappeared, in
the artist’s opinion, and been replaced by consumerist forms
and apathical attitudes.
Anima Requiem is a garden of death and birth. It celebrates
death as renewal and a transformative process. All the
materials used belong to living organisms. Shells, leaves
fallen from the trees and animal hooves are used to create
hybrid forms and new entities; symbolic of metamorphosis and
new life. The birds become spiritual guides that lead us
towards new levels of consciousness.
Simone Eisler, Anima Requiem, 2004, installation avec matériaux divers (sabots et cornes de vache, de buffle et taureau),
coquilles d’huîtres, cire végétale, colle, sable noir, sel marin, terreau, feuilles séchées (ou en matière synthétique), machine
à fumigation. Collection de l’artiste
*Tony Albert
Born in 1981 in Brisbane, Tony Albert’s traditional territory
is around Cardwell, a tropical forest area on the East coast
of Cape York. He uses painting, video and photography and
bears an accurate and original eye on alienation and
manipulation phenomenon, and also on the definition of
Indigenous identity in an urban environment.
Tony Albert Série Ghetto Supastars : 50perCENT, NOTORIOUS B.E.L.L., SISSY, 2006, photographies
argentiques. Collection de l’artiste
Tony Albert, AustrALIEN, 2007, photographie sur vinyl.
Collection de l’artiste
*Tracey Moffatt
Tracey Moffatt, born in 1961 in Brisbane, is the most famous
Aborignal photographer in the world. She has exhibited in
Paris (National Centre of Photography), London, Japan, and
New-York, where she lives. She builds her images with
references from Trash TV soaps, pop music or her memories as
an adopted Aboriginal child. She works on the themes of
violence, domination and erotic fantasies.
Moffatt constructs her photographs and movies like surreal
pictures coming out of a dream. The delay of the scene is made
by using dazzling lights that make frame and details blur. The
story, often quite simple, is twisted by a time and space
distortion. The order of the images is not clear then we can’t
figure out what is the beginning, the middle and the end. Any
linear analyse would be odd then. This delay and the confusion
of the genres give the impression that « something has just
happened, or is about to happen » (Durant) and allows the
visitor to identify with the scene and to project in it his
own fantasies.
Tracy Moffatt, tirages de la série Laudanum, 1998, 10 photogravures sur papier. Paris, coll. du FNAC
*Topsie Sampson Napurrula, Beryl Barnes Nakamara, Mona
Napaltjarri Rockman, Judy Napaltjarri Walker, Biddy Nungarrayi, Alice Kelly Napaltjarri, Rosie Tasman Napurrula, Lily Hargraves Nungurrayi et Margaret
Martin Nungurrayi
These paintings reproduce ancestral “dreamings”, the epic
tales of the mythical ancestors. The ancestors shaped the
world and still continue to interact with it, influencing the
cycle of seasons, the vegetation growth, the abundance of
water and food, the well-being of people.
The iconographic vocabulary of the paintings from Lajamanu is
limited to a few patterns with concentric and oblong shapes,
straight and undulate lines, several figurative patterns and
dots. These patterns are not abstract but are ideograms which
represent the artist’s dreaming. Their meaning comes from
their context and is generated by specific codes. The
compositions are usually made with an horizontal plan and the
paintings must be read as a map. This aesthetic comes from the
old semi-nomad hunter-gatherers way of life. In each painting,
the artist expresses his or her own vision of the country and
its daily life.
Judy Napaltjarri Walker, Mala (Wallaby Rosie Tasman Napurrula, Ngurlu (Seed dreaming), 2007,
Dreaming), 2007, acrylique sur toile. Paris, acrylique sur toile. Paris, collection particulière
collection particulière
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