Heavenly Creatures, Coca-Colanised, & We are infinite.
Opening night // Gallery 1: Heavenly Creatures, Gallery 2.1: Coca-Colanized, Galley 2.2: We are Infinite.
+ March 1, 5:30-6pm, artist introduction to Heavenly Creatures, Coca-Colanized, & We are infinite.
+ March 24, 11am-4pm, A day of activities and events for exhibitions Coca-Colanized, & We are infinite.
Heavenly Creatures denotes divine hierarchy. In this exhibition, artists Louisa Afoa, Natasha Matila-Smith and Molly Rangiwai-McHale play with this title, fracturing an authoritative and absolute voice that denotes a purist version of culture. The artists, each from Aotearoa, New Zealand, don't claim to speak for everyone, but represent three perspectives amongst the many diverse voices of indigenous people. Their works demonstrate that indigenous voices are diverse, complex and unexpected in their positions. All the while resisting definition by colonial or romanticised pre-colonial standards.
Louisa Afoa, Untitled (2017), vinyl installation. Image by Document Photography.
L-R: Natasha Matila-Smith, You're too good for me (2018), Louisa Afoa, Untitled (2018), Lousia Afoa, Untitled (2017), Centre: Molly Rangiwai-McHale, Love and Affection (2018), mixed media. Image by Document Photography.
Natasha Matila-Smith, In The Flesh (2017), spray paint on fabric. Image by Document Photography.
Louisa Afoa, Untitled (2018), moving image, 9 mins 48 secs. Image by Document Photography.
Natasha Matila-Smith, New Years Romeo (2018) spray paint on satin. Image by Document Photography.
L-R: Natasha Matila-Smith, New Years Romeo (2018), Being sad is on trend (2018), You're too good for me (2018), Centre: Molly Rangiwai-McHale, Love and Affection (2018). Image by Document Photography.
Natasha Matila-Smith, Being sad is on trend (2018), acrylic on satin. Image by Document Photography.
Coca-Colanisation is the term used to describe the globalization of American culture through popular American products such as Coca-Cola. In the context of this exhibition, the term is an access point for discussions around colonial occupation in the Philippines and subsequent attitudes conditioned by a Western presence in a developing world. The show aims to illustrate the competing and complex tension between my dual cultural identities as an Australian with Filipina ethnicity, but also demonstrate the established pattern of colonial benevolence between Australia and the Philippines.
Marikit Santiago, Mary Manananggal (2018), second hand children's garments, towels, linen, found mannequin, dress-maker pins, thread, hot glue gun, packing tape, masking tape, dimensions variable. Image by Document Photography.
Coca-Colanised :: Marikit Santiago. Image by Document Photography.
Marikit Santiago, Enjoy (2018), acrylic painted directly on gallery wall, 450 cm x 210 cm. Image by Document Photography.
Marikit Santiago, Thank God It's Friday Fast (2017), acrylic, oil, transfer etching, pencil, pen and spray paint on found cardboard, 90 cm x 90 cm. Image by Document Photography.
L-R: Marikit Santiago, Be (2017), acrylic, oil and pyrography on MDF placemat, 50 x 40 cm; Marikit Santiago, Blessed Virgin Fierce (2018), acrylic, oil and pyrography on ply, 135 cm x 65 cm. Image by Document Photography.
Marikit Santiago, Mary Manananggal (2018) (detail). Image by Document Photography.
Gallery 2.2 :: We are infinite.
We are infinite. is an exhibition by Nicole Barakat that embodies her reconnection with the diaspora of objects from her ancestral homelands in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, held within Western museum collections. To by-pass the gatekeepers and breach the vitrines holding these ancestral objects, Barakat engages with coffee cup divination, dream-work, intuitive listening and conversations with the objects themselves. Her work critically considers connections between the violence of colonialism (under which many museum objects were acquired) and the current states of violence in the SWANA region.
Nicole Barakat, We don't forget home, 2018, silk embroidered, hand cut lame on direct digital print silk satin (detail). Image by Document Photography.
We are infinite. :: Nicole Barakat. Image by Document Photography.
L-R: Nicole Barakat, Our soil still weeps for you, 2018, silk embroidered hand cut lame on direct digital print silk satin, and Nicole Barakat, We don't forget home, 2018, silk embroidered hand cut lame on direct digital print silk satin. Image by Document Photography.
Nicole Barakat, We transcend time and place, 2017, hand cut found paper. Image by Document Photography.
Nicole Barakat, We will in the now, hand cut silk, wool, lame, cotton, direct digital print silk satin on linen, 2018; We will remember who we are, cotton embroidered hand cut lame on wool silk cloth, 2018; We will persist, cotton and silk embroidered hand cut lame on wool silk cloth, 2018. Image by Document Photography.
L-R: We transcend time and place (2017), Our soil still weeps for you (2018) and We don't forget home (2018) works by Nicole Barakat Image by Document Photography.
Nicole Barakat, We will heal now, hand cut silk, wool, lame, cotton, direct digital print silk satin on linen. Image by Document Photography.