Biennale at the MCA
I’m sure there were many people worried that Biennale may not return this year. After a brief opening in March, lockdown shut down the MCA and galleries around the country and Biennale went online for a time while everyone waited to see what would happen. But it’s back, reopening in June with the season extended until September (fingers crossed).
Spread across six venues*, this year’s Biennale is titled NIRIN, a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘edge’. NIRIN is a celebration of ancient cultures and ‘a place to see the world through different eyes’ according to Brook Andrew, the Biennale’s first indigenous artistic director.
Featuring the work of artist and First Nations people from communities across the world, NIRIN presents stories, experiences and cultures that are often ignored or unheard in the mainstream. The collection at the MCA offers a great mix of perspectives and media. These are my picks.
Highlights
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili
Marawili’s lively creations immediately drew me in as I entered the exhibition space on level one. The artist hails from East Arnhem Land and she paints water and the way it moves, splashes and sprays on rocks. These large pieces, suspended from the ceiling, are painted on stringybark using earth pigments and recycled print toner. Her designs are so beautiful; I want them in my house.
Erkan Özgen, Wonderland
I walked past this initially, distracted as I was by Marawili’s bark paintings. But I was soon drawn back by the insistent grunts and murmurs coming from one of three video screens mounted at the entrance. In Wonderland, thirteen year old Muhammed, who is deaf and mute, uses his hands and body to mime the horrors he and his family experienced when they fled war-torn Syria. The work is both moving and confronting. Özgen, who met Muhammed in his native Turkey, sums it up perfectly: ‘Many people have seen the reality of war. It’s not propaganda. It is not TV. It is not social media. It is reality. He may not be able to speak, but his language is still very powerful. ‘
Özgen wants people to ‘open their eyes’ to the horror of war and his other two works which play alongside Wonderland in triangular formation are equally compelling. Each uses individuals and objects to convey the horror, devastation and mental anguish that lie behind the headlines.
Jes Fan, Form begets Function
Fan plays with glass, resin, pigment and all sorts of molecules and bodily fluids to produce works that question the inconsistency of identity. A transgender artist from an ethnic minority, Fan manipulates materials to make statements about gender and race among other things. His offerings in the exhibition include two large structures inspired by classical Chinese scholar’s shelves. Titled Form begets Function and Function Begets Form the structures feature richly veined surfaces with shelves and curved rods that hold blobs of hand blown glass that have been injected with organic material that changes and decays over time. The screens around the room, large and minuscule give further insight into the artists complex practice and intent.
Aziz Hazara, Bow Echo
I heard Bow Echo before I saw it, a cacophony of toy horns coming from one of the exhibition rooms on level three. Bow Echo spans five large screens, each one featuring a boy blowing on a plastic bugle. The work was inspired by the artist’s own experience of suicide bombings in and around Kabul. He wanted to draw attention to how these events have effected individuals in the area.
The five boys in the videos are perched atop high rocks and battered by winds. The bugle calls have an eerie yet urgent sound that calls attention to the community’s plight and connects to the landscape with its howling winds and traumatic past.
Zanele Muholi, Brave Beauties and Somnyama Ngonyama
South African photographer Zanele Muholi’s work explores the politics of race, gender and sexuality. The pieces featured In NIRIN come from different collections but there is a consistency and continuity in tone, style and subject. Striking black and white portraits line the length and breadth of the room in which they are hung, with full sized portraits from the Brave Beauties collection dominating. Featuring transwomen, Brave Beauties was produced in 2014, the year of South Africa’s 20th anniversary of democracy.
Somnyama Ngonyama features self-portraits taken in many countries and cities around the world. Experimenting with different characters and archetypes, the collection is a statement of self-presentation through portraiture.
Pedro Wonaeamirri with Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri
This collection of hand-carved ironwood tutini poles makes a strong artistic and cultural statement drawing on long held practice. The poles are traditionally commissioned by family members for Pukumani ceremonies to honour the deceased. Wonaeamirri has worked with senior Jilamara carver Patriçk Freddy Puruntatameri to create this installation. Both men are from Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, where their ancestors have lived for at least 40,000 years.
I love the rich tones and designs on each of the poles and the way the repeated colours, lines and assorted shapes give a rhythm to the whole.
To learn more about these art works and many others, visit the MCA website , or better still get to the MCA before it is forced to close again.
Art Gallery of New South Wales1 June – 27 September 2020
Artspace 1 June – 27 September 2020
Campbelltown Arts Centre 1 June – 11 October 2020
Cockatoo Island 16 June – 6 September 2020
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia 16 June – 6 September 2020 (TBC)
Carriageworks 7 August - 26 September