Sadly, it is not often that we hear about the great projects staged aboard, which celebrate Australian artists. These events usually fall under the news spotlight of biennales or exhibitions with commercial galleries, while everything else largely falls outside Australia’s parochial lens.
The Australia Council for the Arts reported in its most recent Corporate Plan 2019-2023, Creativity Connects Us, that it funded 42 international initiatives in 2018-2019, up 140% on its goal.
The Council stated: ‘Our strategic international investment, working alongside our grant programs, helped Australian artists and organisations reach an international audience of 3.5 million in 2018–19. ‘
But how many of those 42 initiatives make it into our domestic arts news? And then of course, there are the hundreds of other laudable projects that sit outside of Australia Council funding, and slip off the radar.
Once such project is the exhibition, Australia. Antipodean Stories, curated by PICA’s former Senior Curator Eugenio Viola for Padiglione d’Arte Contemporane (PAC) in Milan. Viola is now based at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Columbia.
Viola said that while he applied for Australia Council funding, they are still awaiting a decision – to be announced on the day of exhibition’s opening 16 December. A familiar story for many.
Viola was invited by PAC curator Diego Sileo to create an exhibition of contemporary Australian art at the respected Milan institution, following previous exhibitions staged about Cuba and Brasil.
Soda_Jerk, Terror Nullius, 2018. Courtesy the artist.
No shy toe dip
Reflecting on the visibility of Australian curators working abroad, Viola told ArtsHub: ‘It should be changed in favour of more open and less self-referential cultural policies, which are, I believe, the reaction of a feeling connected to a stereotyped idea of cultural and geographical isolation.’
He said that the work of Australian artists in terms of quality and message is absolutely ‘glocal’, and that their ability to deal with their international peers critically is absolutely on par, he concluded.
Viola was optimistic in once sense – he said that Australia is not alone in the lack of celebration and visibility for off-shore projects. ‘Italy is equally slack when it comes to looking at projects beyond its boarders.’
This exhibition is by no means some shy toe dip. Its press flyer describes it as ‘the largest exhibition of contemporary art to be presented outside Australia.’ Regardless of gongs, it is an impressive list of artists who offer a comprehensive charter of contemporary practice now on our shores.
It not only moves across cultural narratives, but is richly cross-generational and also speaks to the diversity of practice here, from video to photography, installations and sculpture, and beyond.
Viola told ArtsHub that he thought the exhibition would be received with ‘much curiosity’. He continued: ‘We don’t know almost anything about the vital Australian art field and Australian artists outside of Australia.’
Among the exhibition’s highlights is Soda_Jerk’s Terror Nullius, which received a controversial reception back home when it was first unveiled in 2018. Also included are Aboriginal artists Richard Bell and Destiny Deacon, for example, who challenge the status quo of Australian identity with a political tone.
Viola said that his curatorial approach was very socially and politically involved. ‘I am interested in challenging the contradictions around reality, and in using art as a social tool to face problems from a different perspective.’
He continued: ‘Soda_Jerk’s work was not calmly received in Italy as well. We didn’t get the logo of the Australian Embassy in Italy for the inclusion of their work in the exhibition. At least, I am glad it provoked a reaction!’
The curator also felt that it was important to include a performative aspect in this view of contemporary Australian practice.
Marco Fusinato will present the performance Spectral Arrows for the opening weekend (which was presented at PICA last year when Viola was curator at the Perth institution). Mike Parr will perform Towards a Black Amazonian Square, most recently revisited at Carriageworks, plus the all-female collective Barbara Cleveland, and in January Stuart Ringholt will also present live work.
‘I think it was essential to present some live voices,’ said Viola. ‘Mike Parr is, without question, a protagonist of the performance art, not only in Australia but at an international level. I am working with him also in Colombia, for a project that will open in March.’
Barbara Cleveland, Bodies in Time, 2016. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Zan Wimberley
Top drawer artist also include Patricia Piccinini and Callum Morton – plus names perhaps known already in Italy, Angelica Mesiti and Fiona Hall who have represented Australia in past editions, as well as Fusinato, who will take up the Pavilion at the next Venice Biennale.
Interesting, Viola has chosen to weight the exhibition just shy of half the head-count with First Nations artists, many who are known for their political vernacular. Artists such as Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Brook Andrew, Daniel Boyd, Julie Gogh, Dale Harding, Archie Moore, Yhonnie Scarce, Christian Thompson, Judy Watson, Jason Wing and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu.
Yhonnie Scarce, Remember Royalty, 2018. Courtesy the artist & THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne. Photo: Janelle Low
His selection pushes against that term Antipodean used the exhibition’s title.
When asked whether he felt it was important for curators to buck the stereotypical image of Australia abroad, Viola told ArtsHub: ‘I didn’t pursue any idea of a supposed ethnic equivalence between the artists. Ethnicity and race could be an essential element in a bigger picture to understand the research and the poetics of an artist fully, but I don’t think they are the main one, and it was my methodological approach in selecting the artists for this project.’
He continued: ‘I believe that Aboriginal – First Nations – contemporary artists are some of the most interesting voices I have discovered during my stay in Australia, and their practice is very politically engaged. They challenge cultural and historical perception, to comment on local and global issues regarding race, consumerism and history. They deal with suppressed histories and an uncomfortable past critically.’
Australia. Antipodean Stories is showing 17 December 2019 – 9 February 2020 at PAC, Milan.
Artists: Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Khadim Ali, Brook Andrew, Richard Bell, Daniel Boyd, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Barbara Cleveland, Destiny Deacon, Hayden Fowler, Marco Fusinato, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Julie Gough, Fiona Hall, Dale Harding, Nicholas Mangan, Angelica Mesiti, Archie Moore, Callum Morton, Tom Nicholson (with Greg Lehman), Jill Orr, Mike Parr, Patricia Piccinini, Stuart Ringholt, Khaled Sabsabi, Yhonnie Scarce, Soda_Jerk, Dr Christian Thompson AO, James Tylor, Judy Watson, Jason Wing and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu.
