The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, the National Gallery’s flagship exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Image — Joel Bray, Wiradjuri people, Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri (still), 2022, commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, image courtesy and © the artist
The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony curated by Hetti Perkins, Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples, is the National Gallery of Australia’s flagship exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
For the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival and Tarnanthi, the Samstag Museum of Art presents a selection of moving image works of art by Hayley Millar Baker, Joel Bray and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, revealing how ceremony is at the nexus of Country, culture and Community.
The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by the Australian Government through Visions of Australia and National Collection Institutions Touring and Outreach Program. The exhibition is made possible through the continued generosity of the National Gallery’s Indigenous Arts Partner Wesfarmers Arts and key philanthropic supporters.
The multichannel video installation Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri, 2022 depicts dancer and choreographer Joel Bray gently inhabiting, dancing on and responding to his ancestral Wiradjuri Country. Bray consulted with Wagga Wagga Elders to create the work, and was guided by Uncle James Ingram.
Parts of Bray’s body are superimposed in the film, using chroma key technology, with natural textures including water, grass and rock, suggesting the intimate relationship First Nations people experience between body and Country.
Nyctinasty, 2021 is the first short film Gunditjmara and Djabwurrung artist Hayley Millar Baker has created. She is best known for her black-and-white photographic series that, through careful digital manipulation, explore the tension between the absences created by colonisation and the ongoing spiritual and physical presence of Aboriginal people in this country.
Where previous work has reflected on the experiences of her maternal forebears, Nyctinasty is intensely personal, drawing on Millar Baker’s lived experience of connection to spirits and ancestors.
Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu’s filmic self-portraits, created at The Mulka Project, a digital library and production centre located in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, explore his connection to Country and the centrality of ceremony in community life.
For the artist, ceremonies ‘have always been and will always be the backbone’ of his life and work, with language playing a key role. Born deaf, Yunupiŋu’s work tests the possibilities of non-verbal communication in examining and representing self and culture.
Join us for an in-conversation with Hayley Millar Baker (Gunditjmara/Djabwurrung) and NGA curator Tina Baum (Gulumerrgin/Gulumerridjin (Larrakia)/Wardaman/Karajarri peoples) to launch the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony exhibition curated by Hetti Perkins, at Samstag.
For the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival and Tarnanthi, Samstag presents a selection of moving image works of art by Hayley Millar Baker, Joel Bray and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, revealing how ceremony is at the nexus of Country, culture and Community.
FRIDAY 20 OCTOBER, 3 PM
SAMSTAG MUSEUM OF ART
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Samstag Museum of Art will host a professional learning workshop to coincide with Samstag’s presentation of the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony.
Open to preservice teachers only, the professional learning day will be delivered by the National Gallery of Australia's education team, focusing on ‘Art Through Culture’, NGAs values-based approach to best practice when engaging with our First Nations arts program and learning programs.
Preservice teachers will learn strategies for the works on display in Ceremony and focus on the ‘Art Through Culture’ framework.
The workshop will include group conversation (30-45 minutes in duration) followed by open ended inquiry questions and strategies in front of artwork.
Tuesday 24 October,
9:30am - 1pm
Limited availability
(30 positions available).
Registration essential
Samstag Museum of Art and the Adelaide Film Festival announce the launch of a new publication in collaboration with ACMI and Perimeter Editions: OUTSIDE THE FRAME: ART AND THE MOVING IMAGE – Samstag/AFF and ACMI Moving Image Commissions 2009–2022. Luscious, comprehensive and immersive, Outside the Frame provides an informative overview of art and moving image in Australia, focusing on 20 key commissions (2009-2022).
To coincide with the launch, Naarm/Melbourne-based moving image artist Daniel Crooks will join Samstag curator Anna Zagala in conversation.
Join us in celebrating the launch of this exciting new publication.
FRIDAY 27 OCTOBER, 4 PM
BRADLEY FORUM, UNISA
RSVP ESSENTIAL
In time for the restoration of Samstag’s galleries, and our upcoming commission with Archie Moore, Samstag is please to present Australian design commentator Tim Ross’s second Designing a Legacy live event.
The show documents Ross’ travels across Australia, seeking an alternative story of Australia that shows how great design connects us to place and each other. In the process, he delves into Samstag architect John Wardle’s appreciation of the environment, and learns from Kevin O’Brien, a leading Australian architect who places Indigenous knowledge of Country at the centre of his practice, and who is currently collaborating with Moore for the 2024 Venice Biennale.
SATURDAY 28 OCTOBER, 7 PM
ALLAN SCOTT AUDITORIUM
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