Shadowlife
Celebrating Australia’s Indigenous culture with
2 March to 29 April 2012
8th floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (bacc)
By The Australian Embassy Bangkok and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (bacc)
An exhibition of moving image works by internationally-renowned Indigenous Australian artists. Shadowlife is part of the Australian Embassy’s activities organised in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Bilateral Relations between Australia and Thailand. Developed by Asialink and the Bendigo Art Gallery, audiences in Thailand will have a chance to see this unique exhibition that will tour in Australia and Asia.
Curated by Djon Mundine OAM and Natalie King, Shadowlife exhibits works by nine internationally renowned contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists (and one non-Indigenous collaborator) engaged in photo-based practices.
Wungguli, an Arnhem Land Djambarrpuyngu word, means ‘spirit’ and ‘shadow’ and came to describe photographic image. Shadowlife explores the notion of the shadow as a representation of our soul. Shadowlife embraces moving image and photography with all its directness, theatricality and immediacy by confronting stereotypes and acting out scenarios.
Exhibition curators Djon Mundine OAM and Natalie King write in the catalogue essay.
“When light shines on something or someone, a shadow is always cast. A person can never desert its shadow and a shadow cannot leave its human original. Every shadow has its own presence and absence. And no more so in this continent, Australia, full of ghosts and shadows honeycombing the historical, social, and physical landscape.”
Participating artists are: Vernon Ah Kee; Bindi Cole; Brenda L. Croft; Destiny Deacon/Virginia Fraser; Fiona Foley; Gary Lee; Michael Riley; Christian Thompson and Ivan Sen.
This exhibition is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Visual Arts Touring Program of the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body; and The Visual Arts and Crafts strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. After Thailand, Shadowlife will travel to other venues including Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Art (Singapore).