Community & Business
10 April, 2024
‘I, Object’ tour reaches Toowoomba
Art fans have a rare chance to view more than 50 contemporary and historical works from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Indigenous Australian Art collection through the exhibition ‘I, Object’ which is at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery until July 21 2024.
‘I, Object’ features contemporary painting, sculpture, and installation by leading Queensland artists Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Michael Boiyool Anning, Fiona Foley, Danie Mellor, Christian Thompson, Warraba Weatherall and others alongside 20 historical shields, boomerangs and clubs.
QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said ‘I, Object’ was an exhibition first developed by Bruce Johnson McLean, former Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA and shown at the Gallery of Modern Art from August 2020 through to August 2021.
“‘I, Object’ considers the many complex relationships Indigenous Australian artists continue to have with objects – from the histories informing their creation to the social and cultural consequences of their collection,” Mr Saines said.
“The exhibition demonstrates the great pride and inspiration of inherited cultural practices and historical Indigenous objects, and reveals the difficulties posed by their collection and estrangement.”
Ms Katina Davidson, Assistant Curator, Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA said a group of contemporary shields in the exhibition by artists Michael Boiyool Anning and Danie Mellor speak back to traditional shield-making practices and the mark-making traditions they have preserved.
“In conversation with the historical shields on display, these contemporary works also comment on the impact of Western aesthetics and colonial policies on Indigenous people and society,” Ms Davidson said.
Works reflecting these ideas include Tony Albert’s large-scale, multi-media installation whiteWASH 2018 that comprises a collection of mid-century Aboriginalia ashtrays, and Vernon Ah Kee’s compelling triptych Neither pride nor courage 2006, large, hand-drawn portraits of male members of the artist’s family that reflect the practices of anthropologist Norman B. Tindale (1900–93), who recorded vast amounts of genealogical information about Indigenous communities from all over Australia in the 1920s and 1930s.
Other highlights in the exhibition include carved sculptures by Wik-Kugu artists Craig Koomeeta and Alair Pambegan, and Fiona Foley’s large-scale, text-based sculpture DISPERSED 2008, a monument to the Aboriginal people who were driven off their land, and many of whom were killed, on the Queensland colonial frontier in the nineteenth century.
The ‘I, Object’ tour has also travelled to Rockhampton, Caboolture, Ipswich, Cairns, and Mackay.
Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, 531 Ruthven Street, is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.30am – 3.30pm.
Entry is free.
