Ruth McDougall, Author at QAGOMA Blog

The creation of black somo

Posted by Ruth McDougall ● 10 Sep 2018

A curator with a deep belief in the ability of art to transform, Jennifer Phipps envisaged a fund that would enable women artists working in the Pacific to engage in projects and learning opportunities, and ensured its existence with a significant bequest.

Oceania Women’s Fund

Visitors to the Queensland Art Gallery’s first exhibition profiling contemporary Pacific textiles in 2003 were greeted by a riot of colour, texture and bold design. The exhibition ‘Island Beats’ displayed textiles created by the region’s women practitioners, a theme that was later explored via ‘The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT5, 2006) in the Pacific Textiles Project and subsequently in ‘Threads: Contemporary Textiles and the Social Fabric’ in 2011. The Gallery’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting the vibrant textiles created by Pacific women parallels the development of an equally rich collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander textiles.

QAGOMA’s ability to build on years of commissioning, acquiring and exhibiting the work of women artists in the Pacific has been enhanced by a generous bequest from Jennifer Phipps, allowing for the creation of the Oceania Women’s Fund. A curator with a deep belief in the ability of art to transform, Phipps’s vision was to enable women working in the more under-resourced and remote areas of the Pacific to engage in projects and learning opportunities to build creative capacity.

Inspired by conversations with her friend and former colleague Sana Balai at the National Gallery of Victoria and the work of NGO Pacific Black Box, the resulting Oceania Women’s Fund entrusts QAGOMA with the ongoing role of fostering creative production by women living and working in the region.

Maraana Vamarasi working on Ibe nauri (round mat)2016, the first work to be supported by the Oceania Women’s Fund — Maraana Vamarasi working on *Ibe nauri (round mat)* 2016, the first work to be supported by the Oceania Women’s Fund / Photograph: Elix Antonio

First project

The first project to be supported by the fund arose from attending the Festival of Pacific Arts in Guam in May 2016, during ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) curatorial research travel. Senior weaver Maraana Vamarasi was part of the delegation from Fiji, exhibiting a beautiful white kutareed ibe nauri (round mat). Conversations revealed that Vamarasi was keen to explore the transformation of this traditionally white-coloured form using the sumptuous black somo (mud-dyed pandanus).

The creation of black somo is an arduous process involving boiling and steeping the pandanus in mud, which imparts not only its characteristic dark tone, but also a supple softness. Highly valued in Fiji, black somo has chiefly associations and is customarily used sparingly in decoration. The black showcases the fine double-weave technique; rather than hide the texture of the weave, the black somo captures the light, emphasising the radiating nature of the mat’s construction and a sense of movement in Vamarasi’s intricate woven patterning. Like a blazing dark sun, it is believed to be the first totally black ibe nauri in existence.

Maraana Vamarasi, Fiji b.1965 / Ibe nauri (round mat) 2016 — Maraana Vamarasi, Fiji b.1965 / *Ibe nauri (round mat)* 2016 / Woven somo (black mud-dyed pandanus) fibre / Purchased 2016 with funds from the Oceania Women’s Fund through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artist

Alongside research travel funded by the Australia Council for the Arts for the development of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition series, the Oceania Women’s Fund will assist the Gallery in identifying new female artists in the region and exploring their art.

The fund will also consolidate the ways that QAGOMA is able to work with artists and communities in the Pacific, not only by celebrating the richness of their culture through exhibitions and public programming, but also by providing opportunities and platforms for exploring ambitious new aesthetic expressions and collaborations.

Ruth McDougall is Curator, Pacific Art, QAGOMA

APT9 supporting new media and voices in the Pacific

Posted by Ruth McDougall ● 29 Aug 2018

Over the past two years the Gallery and co-curator Sana Balai have been working with artists and communities in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and neighbours in the Solomon Islands archipelago, and four artists from Australia on a major project focused on women’s contemporary creative practice for the upcoming ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9). While lacking contemporary art infrastructure, new expressions of customary practice from weaving to body adornment are alive in these Pacific islands. Young practitioners with interests in digital media are also emerging, keen to engage with the opportunities to tell their own stories to an expanded audience.

Amongst recent initiatives to introduce young people to digital media are Arawa born, Sydney based artist Taloi Havini’s project introducing young people to digital media in Bougainville through the NGO Pacific Black Box launched in 2008, a collaboration with local organisations that has seen youth talk about their experience of the effects of climate change. Havini works across photography, video and installation, her bold and intricately layered works engage with the history and material culture of her birthplace, Bougainville. More recently, sisters Georgianna and Regina Lepping founded a film society in nearby Honiara, bringing together aspiring young filmmakers as a support for film makers across the Solomon Islands archipelago. The group directed film programs at the 2018 Melanesian Festival of Arts in Honiara.

Jesmaine Sakoi Gano filming, Women’s Wealth Workshop / Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre, Chabai, September 2017 / Photograph Ruth McDougall © QAGOMA

The APT9 Women’s Wealth project has been an opportunity for Georgianna Lepping and Buka artist Jesmaine Gano (a participant in the 2008 Pacific Black Box project) to be mentored by Havini. The pair spent ten days with the artists from Bougainville, the Solomon’s Choiseul Province and Australia as part of a workshop project at the Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre, Chabai, Bougainville in September 2017. Gano and Lepping’s footage from the workshop includes demonstrations, documentation of artist’s working, as well as individual artists interviews, documenting not only the diversity of practice but the experiences and aspirations of the projects participants.

Mia Forrest, Georgianna Lepping and Jesmaine Sakoi Gano editing footage Women’s Wealth workshop / QAGOMA, Brisbane, 5 July 2018 / Photograph Joe Ruckli © QAGOMA

Both artists travelled to Brisbane in July 2018 to work with the team at QAGOMA’s Australian Cinémathèque to edit the video for display in APT9. Working in the bio box closely with Mia Forrest, they edited hundreds of hours of footage in addition to synchronizing with audio and adding subtitles to finalise moving image material which will be displayed prominently within the Women’s Wealth exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery for APT9.

Jesmaine Sakoi Gano and Georgianna Lepping Karabing / Film Collective exhibition, IMA, Brisbane, 5 July 2018 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall © QAGOMA

Georgianna Lepping, Elisa Jane Carmichael and Jesmaine Sakoi Gano / Minjerribah, 7 July 2018 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall © QAGOMA

The visit coincided with an exhibition of new video works by Indigenous Australian film Collective Karrabing (also in APT9) at the Institute of Modern Art. Gano and Lepping were also able to travel to Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island) to reconnect with fellow Women’s Wealth artist Elisa Jane Carmichael and family on her Quandamooka people’s country, consolidating strong ties between these young indigenous women.

Both artists will return to Brisbane in November to assist the Gallery’s AV teams and students from the Queensland University of Technology to conduct artist interviews and document the opening weekend programs of APT9.

Ruth McDougall is Curator, Pacific Art, QAGOMA

APT9 publication

Feature image detail: Taloi Havini and Imelda Teqae, Women’s Wealth Workshop / Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre, Chabai, September 2017 / Photograph Ruth McDougall © QAGOMA

#APT9QAGOMA

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture

Posted by Ruth McDougall ● 16 Jan 2017

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FOPAC) takes place every four years. Delegates from the islands peppering this vast ocean congregate to share culture, build alliances and discuss issues facing both their independent nations and the region as a whole. In 2016, the festival was hosted by the Chamorro peoples.

BLOG-PNG-1 — Marshallese woven flowers / Festival of Pacific Art and Culture, Guam, May 2016 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall

BLOG-PNG-2 — Woven Marshallese mats / Festival of Pacific Art and Culture, Guam, May 2016 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall

BLOG-PNG-3 — Mau Power performance / Festival of Pacific Art and Culture, Guam, May 2016 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall

The Chamorro are the indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands group and, a little like the Samoans, their people are divided between being an independent nation — the Northern Mariana Islands — and a United States territory: Guam.

There is a long military history in this part of the Pacific and a continuing presence of US forces. Officers in uniform controlled traffic, directing vehicles around the festival village. They also policed the accommodation in which delegates from various nations were staying. The overwhelming warmth and hospitality of the Chamorro, however, completely softened this presence, inspiring a sense of shared joy in the coming together of such a wonderfully diverse yet connected group of artists.

With delegations from 27 countries and each ranging from 60 to 160 people, hosting the festival is a major logistical exercise. There were multiple sites for different activities, with the main festival village directly opposite the newly constructed and impressive Museum of Guam. Here, multiple straw-roofed pavilions housed artists who were conducting workshops and selling paintings, sculptures, adornments and textiles to appreciative locals and international festival goers. Highlights in this space were the Solomon Islands pavilion with its opulent displays of the shell ornaments known as ‘women’s wealth’, Taiwan’s demonstrations of indigenous weaving, the reconstruction of a traditional house in the Yap pavilion, and the intricately patterned weavings created by the elegant women of Marshall and Ponphei islands. Discussions with academic Greg Dvorak and poet Kathy Jetnil Kijiner revealed a revival of women’s weaving on these islands in recent times as a form of resistance to cultural imperialism, as well as to histories of exploitation and environmental destruction. Kathy led a young group of poets in spoken word, using this contemporary form of expression to actively develop networks of communication in the region. One had the sense that the model of the Yap house was equally a form of local resistance.

Performances occurred throughout the day on various stages and featured some of the regions most celebrated musicians and performance groups, including the Solomon Islands’ Rosie Delmah, New Caledonia’s Resurrection, New Zealand’s Horomona Horo, Maisey Rika and Rob Ruha, and Australia’s own Mau Power (Patrick Mau). Moving across to the festival bar after dark, they helped raised the energy levels and had many dancing into the night. Situated on a headland that overlooks a strip of expensive hotels, which are interspersed with designer shops, the Chamorro cultural village gave greater insight into local culture. Small displays of historical and contemporary works were beautifully curated in the old hospital buildings by a group of local volunteers. In addition to hosting performances, the village was where you could experience traditional cooking demonstrations and tastings, or engage with a presentation on indigenous medicine and healing practices as well as tattooing.

Brisbane-based Rako Pacifika wowed audiences with their powerful performances, staged in one of the most beautiful buildings in Guam’s capital, Hagåtña, at sunset. It was also wonderful to also see strong new work by New Zealand artists Lisa Reihana, John Ione, Chris Charteris and Maureen Lander alongside contemporaries from the region, including Cook Islands’ tivaevae artist Tungane Broadbent, who worked with the Gallery in 2005. Lots of colleagues from museums in Britain, Taiwan and the United States were busily acquiring work for collections, progressing research and meeting artists, which made for some rich late-night conversations. A daily visit to the artists’ air-conditioned green room at the museum to check on the latest changes in the schedule often led to impromptu meetings that were equally inspiring. Four very full days and much to follow as QAGOMA’s Asian and Pacific Art team starts to map out The Nineth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9).

This is an extract from the Gallery’s Artlines magazine available from the Gallery Store. Keep up to date with the Gallery’s seasonal publication delivered each quarter to QAGOMA Members.

BLOG-PNG-4 — Guam girl band / Image courtesy: Maryann Talia Pau and the Yap Island performance

BLOG-PNG-5 — Festival of Pacific Art and Culture, Guam, May 2016 / Photograph: Ruth McDougall

Simon Nowep: Maintaining a place for spirits

Posted by Ruth McDougall ● 11 Jan 2017

Simon Nowep was one of a group of artists in the village of Kambot, on the Keram River in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, who received art materials from Australian teacher Helen Dennett in the early 1970s. Dennett recently gifted a number of Nowep’s prints to the Gallery, which greatly enhance our collection of art from the region.

BLOG-NOWEPsimon_Birds — Simon Nowep, Artist, Papua New Guinea 1902-1984 / Wirui Press, Printer, Papua New Guinea b.est. c.1960s / *Birds* c.1974 / Screenprint on paper / Gift of Helen and Paul Dennett through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2016 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artists

When Helen Dennett moved to the Sepik River region to teach in the early 1960s, Dennett was inspired by the artists and distinctive art of the region. Her involvement with the Kambot artist group commenced in 1973, when she moved down river with her husband and young child to the Angoram government station: young Kambot artists Zacharias Waybenang and his brother Ignas Keram were living in Angoram temporarily, producing small carvings, and Dennett, who was impressed with their work, provided them with paper and pencils to use and take back to the village. After receiving a drawing by Simon Nowep, Dennett travelled to the village specifically to meet him.

A senior artist in the village, Nowep was taken into the Haus Tambaran (spirit house) at the tender age of two weeks and is said to have been chosen by the elder men to carry the knowledge and ability to produce traditional paintings and stories.¹ As Nowep grew up, there was increased contact with foreign influences and, as elsewhere in New Guinea, the introduction of Catholicism and German administrative control resulted in rapid social changes in Kambot. As a young man Nowep was made a catechist for the Catholic mission in the village and, under pressure from the church, witnessed the selling and removing the sculptures from the sacred chambers of the Haus Tambaran. Against this, however, he maintained a passionate interest in sharing traditional stories and art, continuing to paint, and was recognised as the ‘most well-known and competent artist of the 1960s–80s in the Keram River area’.² When soon-to-be director of Port Moresby’s National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG) Dirk Schmidt arrived in Kambot on a collecting mission for the Museum in 1971, Nowep was commissioned to paint a Haus Tambaran façade featuring Mopul, the paramount ancestor figure. Formally registered in the museum’s collection in 1972, this impressive work became the inspiration for the façade of the existing museum building, which opened in 1977.

BLOG-NOWEPsimon_MopulWithTwoFemaleFollowers — Simon Nowep, Artist, Papua New Guinea 1902-1984 / Wirui Press, Printer, Papua New Guinea b.est. c.1960s / *Mopul with two female followers* c.1973 / Screenprint on paper / Gift of Helen and Paul Dennett through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2016 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artists

When Dennett arrived in Angoram soon after, Nowep seized the opportunity to share, producing a number of drawings from which Dennett created prints in numbered editions. These were also published in 1975, alongside other Keram River artists such as Manua Mambesi, in the book Mak Bilong Sepik.³

Writing about Nowep in the book she self-published in 2012, Dennett states that:

Simon’s drawings depict a range of traditional subjects mainly ancestor and spirit figures. He liked to work in black and white and said that colours such as red and yellow should only be used to highlight a picture.⁴

The drawings are largely translated from paintings traditionally done on flattened sections of sago palm leafstalks (known as panggal) and used to adorn the walls and ceilings of the Haus Tambaran.

BLOG-NOWEPsimon_KonyimAndDemanSpirits — Simon Nowep, Artist, Papua New Guinea 1902-1984 / Wirui Press, Printer, Papua New Guinea b.est. c.1960s / *Birds Konyim and Deman spirits* c.1974 / Screenprint on paper / Gift of Helen and Paul Dennett through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2016 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artists

The prints, recently gifted by Dennett to the Queensland Art Gallery, feature important ancestor and spirit figures such as Mopul and Wain, represented in formal, static poses. Dennett notes that ‘it is not for man to show these figures in action’.⁵ She also writes:

Bird-headed figures may represent Lawena from the legend of Lawena and Dawena or deman spirits that live in brandama trees from which Kambots make canoes . . . Konyim spirits which have human-type heads, inhabit banyan trees and may harm anyone who damages their home. Konyim and deman are often described as bush spirits, can be either male or female and may act capriciously or kindly towards humans.⁶

Strong visual statements, the Nowep prints have since been appropriated in numerous contexts as iconic designs of Papua New Guinea, along with a number of other designs published in Dennett’s Mak Bilong Sepik.⁷

Endnotes
1 Transcript of interview with Maro Nowep (son of Simon Nowep), Kambot village, 2014, given to the author on 10 January 2014 by Sabet Cox (a Nowep family member).
2 Barry Craig, ‘The Masterpieces Exhibition’ in Craig (ed.), Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes, University of Hawaii Press and Crawford Publishing House, 2010, p.52.
3 Helen Dennett and Paul Dennett, Mak Bilong Sepik: A Selection of Designs and Paintings from the Sepik River, Helen Dennett, 1975.
4 Helen Dennett, Simon Nowep of Kambot, Helen Dennett, 2012, p.4.
5 Dennett, p.5
6 Dennett, p.5.
7 Dennett, p.5.

This is an extract from the Gallery’s Artlines magazine available from the Gallery Store. Keep up to date with the Gallery’s seasonal publication delivered each quarter to QAGOMA Members.

a Bit na Ta: The Source Of The Sea

Posted by Ruth McDougall ● 2 Jan 2017

The a Bit na Ta project within ‘No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966–2016’ is about a ples (place) — Blanche Bay in East New Britain — as experienced by its local people, the Tolai, between 1875 and 1975.

As the full moon slowly rises over the shimmering waters of Blanche Bay, fishermen launch their canoes towards the fishing holes that their ancestors have fished for centuries. Prayers and songs to the Kaia, promise of a bountiful catch. a Bit na Ta is the source of the sea. Life begins here.¹

Commissioned specially for the exhibition and led by celebrated Australian musician, composer and music producer David Bridie, a Bit na Ta brings together Tolai historians, artists, musicians and community members to share their perspectives on the events that shaped this century in and around Blanche Bay. At times, this history intersects with major world events, including two devastating World Wars; it illuminates processes of colonisation and political self-determination; and it has recorded cataclysmic volcanic eruptions. Visitors to the installation certainly won’t find a dry, plotted timeline.

History can be recorded and shared in many ways. Personal histories are held and triggered by the smell or texture of a cloth, the play of light over a surface. Stories are told and passed on from generation to generation. Objects are exchanged and valued, carrying with them the memory of events, people and place. For the Tolai, life and culture are imbued with sound and music. As project leader David Bridie observes in an interview for the ‘No.1 Neighbour’ exhibition publication:

Music is everywhere; men sing on the road side, women sing working their gardens, kids sing on the beach, teenagers are glued to their phones hearing their favourite PNG artists, PMVS blare out distorted local songs… music underpins ceremony… every village has a string band… birds, frog and insect sounds are symphonic at night…²

a Bit na Ta draws on the importance of music and song for the Tolai. Visitors to the installation will be immersed in a 30-minute sequence of songs and atmospheric sounds accompanied by five video projections. The centrepiece of the installation is the recording of a suite of new songs composed for the project by George Telek, arguably Papua New Guinea’s most famous practitioner.

The haunting beauty of Telek’s voice, among characteristically Tolai three-part harmonies, captures the emotive power of key events in Tolai history. Together with Telek, there is a group of new songs by the Moab, Gilnata and Amidel stringbands. The Matupit choir and a group of older Tolai men and women also sing a range of customary songs that fully situate the project and history within a Tolai cultural sphere.

Across much of Oceania, music is not separated from life or other art forms. For a Bit na Ta, Melbourne-based artist Lisa Hilli and filmmaker Garett Low have collaborated with the project team to extend a rich aural experience into the visual and sensual realms. However, the bedrock of the project is the extensive cultural and historical knowledge held by Tolai historian Gideon Kakabin. It is Gideon’s understanding of the intersection of history with Tolai life and experience that has shaped much of the content of a Bit na Ta.

Within the broader ‘No.1 Neighbour’ exhibition, a Bit na Ta provides important insights into a period of history of Papua New Guinea in which Australia and Australians were heavily involved, for better and — as we will discover — for worse. It also celebrates the ongoing commitment that an individual Australian has made to developing and supporting creative conversations in this young nation. First travelling to Rabaul as part of the celebrated band Not Drowning Waving in 1986, David Bridie has since maintained a close relationship with Telek and his Tolai friends and family as well as championing the extraordinary music of the country through the Wantok Musik Foundation. a Bit na Ta emerges from and is imbued with Bridie’s genuine and deeply felt respect for the Tolai people, and theirs for him. As such, the project is one of the centrepieces of the exhibition.

Endnotes
¹ Gideon Kakabin, ‘a Bit na Ta’, in No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966–2016 [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, October 2016, p.60.
² David Bridie, interviewed by Ruth McDougall in No.1 Neighbour, p.58.

This is an extract from the Gallery’s Artlines magazine available from the Gallery Store. Keep up to date with the Gallery’s seasonal publication delivered each quarter to QAGOMA Members.

BLOG-PNG-6 — Installation view of a Bit na Ta in ‘No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966–2016’

Music is also essential to Tolai life and ceremony and the a Bit na Ta story is presented via new recordings of singsing tumbuna (ceremonial song), string band, lotu choir style and contemporary soundscapes supported with archival film and new footage of the landscape and ceremony. a Bit na Ta builds upon a 30-year collaboration between celebrated Tolai musician George Telek and Australian musician, composer and producer David Bridie who have drawn on their Tolai wantok (family) and friends including historian and artist Gideon Kakabin to tell the a Bit na Ta story. In Kakabin’s words:

A Bit na Ta. The source of the sea. Life begins here.

A tinata
Marmari aria bit na ta
I valu e
Ra oaga na pipi
The words
come from inside the sea
he paddles
his canoe, a boat of lightening

a Bit Na Ta is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The exhibition continues until 29 January 2017.

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

Bit na Ta available from the QAGOMA Store and online

EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION INSTALLATION FURTHER

DELVE DEEPER INTO THE ART OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA

BUY THE PUBLICATION IN-STORE AND ONLINE

Our richly illustrated hardcover publication accompanies the exhibition, with contributions from Ruth McDougall, Tolai artist and historian Gideon Kakabin, Manus Island musician John Faunt, and commentators Kiri Chan and Ruth Choulai, as well as numerous artist interviews.

Twist and Loop

Posted by Ruth McDougall ● 28 Dec 2016

‘Twist and loop’ describes both a technique used by women in Papua New Guinea to create knotted fabrics and the movements in choreographed dance sequences performed during sing sing (ceremony and dance).

Twist and Loop is also the title of a performance event created for the exhibition ‘No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966–2016’.

BLOG-TwistAndLoopPerformance — *Twist and Loop* staged during the opening-weekend celebrations of ‘No.1 Neighbour’ / Photograph: Joe Ruckli © QAGOMA

EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION AND INSTALLATION

DELVE DEEPER INTO THE ART OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Twist and Loop involves contemporary dancers responding to and dressed in bilum wear designed by leading Eastern Highlands artist Florence Jaukae- Kamel. Jaukae-Kamel first came to prominence with an innovative range of billum garments worn by the athletes representing Papua New Guinea at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006.

While her choice of billum knotting techniques as a medium flows out of a childhood familiarity with the rich traditions of the Eastern Highlands, her dresses and other garments are undeniably contemporary. Works in the Gallery’s Collection, such as Kalibobo 2010, move beyond traditional forms of the bag and ceremonial apron into the realm of fashion: rather than a clan design, the pattern in this dress is based on a friend’s recall of a lighthouse in Madang.

BLOG-Florence Jaukae-Kamel Kalibobo 2010 — Florence Jaukae-Kamel / *Kalibobo* 2010 / Bilum wear: hand-twisted and looped polyester wool mix fibre with commercial dyes / Purchased 2011 with funds from the Estate of Lawrence F King in memory of the late Mr and Mrs SW King through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artist

For Twist and Loop, the bilum artist is extending her repertoire to create a new body of unique dresses, shaped and patterned to engage with topics and histories ranging from colonisation and the usurpation of land, to the impact of rubgy league culture in the Eastern Highlands. Choreographer Julia Mage’au Gray from the Mekeo peoples of Central Province will respond to a fellow Eastern Highlands associate designs with a new piece, performed by her largely Brisbane-based dance and production company, Sunameke.

Mage’au Gray works from the precept of ‘old to new old’, passionately advocating for the continued relevance and vitality of the age-old cultural traditions of Melanesia. Whether choreographing innovative performance pieces, training dancers in a range of dance forms from across Oceania, or developing videos and photographic series about contemporary Melanesian experience, Mage’au Gray maintains the importance of respecting and acknowledging what has gone before. Historical images, recorded interviews with bubus (grandmothers), traditional bilas (ornamentation) and dance moves often feature prominently in her highly layered works.

The strength and resilience of women in Papua New Guinea is one of the strong themes in the exhibition ‘No.1 Neighbour’, with works by both Florence Jaukae-Kamel and Julia Mage’au Gray featured. Working across disciplines and cultures, the creative conversation between them and Sunameke that is Twist and Loop honours the ongoing vitality of women’s fibre and dance traditions in Papua New Guinea, transposing into contemporary beats the longstanding rhythms of PNG women’s creative practice.

This is an extract from the Gallery’s Artlines magazine available from the QAGOMA Store. Keep up to date with the Gallery’s seasonal publication delivered each quarter to QAGOMA Members.

BUY THE PUBLICATION

A richly illustrated hardcover publication accompanies the exhibition, with contributions from curator Ruth McDougall, Tolai artist and historian Gideon Kakabin, Manus Island musician John Faunt, and commentators Kiri Chan and Ruth Choulai, as well as numerous artist interviews.

‘No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1966–2016’ is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and through the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The exhibition continues until 29 January 2017.

Author: Ruth McDougall

The creation of black somo

Oceania Women’s Fund

First project

Read more on APT9 / Subscribe to YouTube for behind-the-scenes video

APT9 supporting new media and voices in the Pacific

Read more on APT9 / Subscribe to YouTube for behind-the-scenes video

APT9 publication

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture

Simon Nowep: Maintaining a place for spirits

a Bit na Ta: The Source Of The Sea

Twist and Loop