A new art exhibition will open on January 8 at Ngununggula.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Dingo Project will be on display from January 8 until March 6, 2022.
Curated by acclaimed Aboriginal curator and writer Djon Mundine OAM FAHA, the exhibition takes inspiration from the Southern Highlands town of Mittagong, which was home to many dingoes at one time - and is also home for Mundine.
Born in Grafton NSW, Djon Mundine is a proud Wehbal man from the West Bundjalung Nation of the Northern Rivers and descendant of the Gumbaynggirr, Yunin people.
He now lives in Mittagong.
As a curator, writer, artist and activist, Mundine has played a significant role in the criticism and exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal art.
He has held senior curatorial positions in both national and international institutions, including the National Museum of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Campbelltown Art Centre.
Across the mediums of photography, installation, video, sculpture and performance, the exhibition investigates the spiritual and the historical narratives of ancestral dingoes - not only of this area, but their spiritual role in conveying ancestral storytelling, through dance, song and language.
Curator Djon Mundine said Aboriginal people were "brought up to be personally, emotionally, spiritually and socially independent."
"But also ambiguously gregarious and seeking the company of others," he said.
"The Dingo Project aims to examine human-animal relations/consciousness, and human-human consciousness.
"For Aboriginal people, the Dingo appears as a totemism - a connector of spirit and land - while for non-Aboriginal Australians Dingoes and Aboriginals - remains an archetype, seen as pests (native humans and native animals alike) to be restricted/re-strained and 'trained' (re-educated-civilised), if not exterminated.
"He reminds us that Australia constructed one of the world's longest man-made structures in history - the Dingo Fence - to keep the native beings away from now civilized, Western agriculture/herding. The exhibition aims to short-circuit that fear and thinking by reimaging the dingo in our times."
Director of Ngununggula Megan Monte said "Ngununggula had chosen to foreground First Nations voices, across its exhibition program, our public engagement, education, and overall ethos of engagement.
"For The Dingo Project, Djon has bought the story of the past that lie undercurrent to this particular place and thrust them into our contemporary moment - to encourage us to think, to question, to respect and to engage," she said.
The exhibition will present newly commissioned and existing artworks by Aboriginal artists including Garth Lena, Fiona Foley, George Pascoe Jnr, Johnny Malibirr, Blak Douglas, Danie Mellor, Teena McCarthy, Lin Onus, Karla Dickens, Michael Cook, Warwick Keen, Judith Crispin, Jenny Sage, Peter McKenzie, Fiona Hall and more.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark our website
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news and regular newsletters