Mualgal artist David Bosun, working on a sculpture totem on Mua Island in the Torres Strait. © the artist
David Bosun visits U.Va. for Exhibition and Residency
During the month of September, artist David Bosun will take up residency at the University of Virgina. Bosun is a printmaker and woodcarver from Mua Island in the Torres Strait. Influenced by Melanesian culture, (a result of a history of trade between the Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea), Bosun’s bold, figurative works describe the traditions, practices and ancestral stories of the Mualgal people.
The residency provides a unique opportunity for the artist to share his rich culture and artistic practice with a wide audience through a schedule of educational talks, lectures and tours – including a presentation on his Indigenous perspectives on astronomy held at the McCormick Observatory. Students at the U.Va. will also have the opportunity to collaborate with Bosun on a unique wood carving project.
Bosun’s work is particularly significant as he is one of four artists selected by elders in 2000 to re-record the island’s creation stories through printmaking. This was the first time the ancestral stories have taken visual form after the devastating loss of material culture to missionaries and collectors in the previous century. The artist has embraced this responsibility and his resulting works, both woodblock and linoleum prints will be presented in the exhibition Ngau Gidthal (My Stories) from September 6 until December 29 at the Kluge-Ruhe Collection.
The museum’s Director, Margo Smith highlights the importance of the artist’s work and stay: “David Bosun’s residency and exhibition will allow us to share the striking contemporary art and culture of Torres Strait Islanders, who are distinct from Aboriginal people on mainland Australia and whose art is not well represented in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection”
This month-long residency has been sponsored by the Australia Council for the Arts and is accompanied by a fabulous program of events.
SOURCE: Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia [Accessed 29 August 2013]