Tracey Moffatt, Touch, 2017 (détail) © Tracey Moffatt, courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Fondation Opale presents photography from urban centers across Australia which explores central themes of Australian history such as stolen generations, intersectional racism or dispossession, alongside unique wamulu paintings (wamulu is a yellow flower from the Central Australian Desert originally used for ephemeral ceremonial ground paintings).
FUGITIVE PRESENT thus brings together two very different mediums that aim to render visible something immaterial, even if for a brief moment in time. Featuring photographic works by Michael Riley, Tracey Moffatt, Robert Fielding and Tony Albert as well as wamulu ground paintings by Ted Egan Jangala, Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa, Johnny Possum Japaljarri and Albie Morris Jampijinpa.
FUGITIVE PRESENT puts on display the artistic diversity of Australia’s first peoples by combining an ancient art form with a more recent medium. Originally created on the soil during ceremonies, the artworks made from wamulu, a yellow flower from Australia’s Central Desert, were made permanent using a binder on panels in order to be displayed to the general public. Alongside these ground paintings, some fifty photographs explore sensitive topics from Australian colonial history. FUGITIVE PRESENT brings together two very different mediums, both aiming at rendering visible the immaterial, at fixing the ephemeral, even if for a brief moment in time.
CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY AND ENGAGED ART
Created between the 1990s and today, the photographic series by Michael Riley, Tracey Moffatt, Tony Albert and Robert Fielding denounce the still-painful consequences of the European invasion and dispossession of Aboriginal peoples. Michael Riley’s Cloud and Sacrifice series, as well as his film Empire tell about the complex effects of the introduction of Christianity, while Tracey Moffatt’s and Tony Albert’s pictures point the finger at the stereotypical portrayals of Aboriginal peoples and the multiple forms of racism to which they are subjected. As a son of a child from the stolen generations, Robert Fielding highlights the clash between Western and Aboriginal cultures with his series Objects of Origin.
TRADITIONAL WAMULU PAINTINGS
Made from a yellow flower that grows abundantly in the Alice Springs region as their primary material, these ground mosaics have ceremonial purposes and disappear once the ritual is over. They have been made permanent on the occasion of an exceptional artistic project that took shape in the Central Desert between 2002 and 2005. The themes of the artworks relate to the main Dreamings from the desert regions, such as Fire, Water and Emu. These wamulu ground paintings are the result of a performance or a community event. The pictures are sung alive as much as they are composed with matter, emphasising the continuance of the link with ancestral creation. FUGITIVE PRESENT brings together the collaborative productions of Ted Egan Jangala, Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa, Johnny Possum Japaljarri and Albie Morris Jampijinpa.
SOURCE: Fondation Opale.