Drawing from the first major survey of the work of artist Christian Thompson, the Samstag Museum of Art presents Ritual Intimacy at the University of South Australia’s SASA Gallery.

Through video, sound and photography, Thompson explores the concept of 'spiritual repatriation', which he developed recently working with the Australian collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum to complete his PhD at the University of Oxford.

Ritual Intimacy features an ambitious new commission, Berceuse, 2017. In this immersive three-channel sound and video installation, Thompson sings in Bidjara – his ancestral language that is considered to be officially endangered. Thompson practices what he describes as ‘the simple yet profound idea that if even one word of an endangered language is spoken it continues to be a living language’.

Ritual Intimacy by Christian Thompson is a Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) exhibition curated by Charlotte Day, Director, MUMA and Hetti Perkins and presented at SASA Gallery by Samstag Museum of Art. This project has been supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. MUMA and Samstag Museum of Art acknowledge the support of the Gordon Darling Foundation for the accompanying publication. Christian Thompson's presence at SASA Gallery has been generously assisted by Professor Irene Watson, Pro Vice Chancellor: Aboriginal Leadership & Strategy, and Professor of Law, University of South Australia.