Rising’s monumental new sonic artwork, The Rivers Sing, by Deborah Cheetham AO, with artists Thomas Supple and Byron J. Scullin, will wind its way along the Birrarung and Maribyrnong rivers. Photograph: Kristoffer Paulsen.
Featuring twenty-five artists from across the country, the TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters responds to two related cues: the idea of slowness, and the gentle, measured flow of the nearby Birrarung (Yarra River). The exhibition’s title comes from the translation of the local Woiwurrung word ‘tarrawarra’, after which the Museum, and its surrounding area of Wurundjeri Country in the Yarra Valley are named.
Aligned with the unhurried arc of the river, Slow Moving Waters explores processes of deceleration, delay and the decompression of time, proposing a stay to the ever more rapid flows of people, commerce and information that characterise the dynamic of globalisation. Against today’s cult of speed, the artworks in the Biennial mark a different sort of time—one which connects with the vastness and intricacy of geological and cosmological cycles, seasonal rhythms, interconnected ecologies, and ancient knowledge systems.
Including artists: Robert Andrew, Megan Cope, Nicole Foreshew and P. Thomas Boorljoonngali, Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Mandy Quadrio, Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, Jonathan Jones, and more.
Source: TarraWarra Museum of Art.