A major exhibition of newly commissioned works by eight leading Australian Aboriginal artists and collectives. All four of Tandanya's gallery spaces will present ambitious, conceptually rigorous and innovative works based in painting, fibre, glass, found objects, installation and moving image. 

For many Indigenous peoples, 'heaven on Earth' is the divine world shaped by ancestral creators, where connection to country and culture are in harmony with the experience of self and community. At the other extreme, the legacies of incursion and assimilation are a 'living hell'. The in-between is uneasy, lined with hope and echoing with resilience.

The term 'deadly' is used in the mainstream as meaning lethal and dangerous; for Aboriginal Australians it affirms splendour. This provocative new survey will explore the in-between space - hovering between dystopian nightmare and utopian dream.

Artists

Six independent artists and two collectives have been commissioned to create new work, specific to notions outlined in the curatorial rationale. They are renown for the way their individual practices process and navigate complex and often painful realities of personal and collective displacement and abuse, by investigating and suggesting new ways to belong.

These artists range from emerging to established, with practices spanning painting, sculpture, glass, fibre, installation, moving image and performance. They hail from urban, regional and remote areas in South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Victoria.

They are celebrated for their unique insights into how to make sense of the world, and how to effect critical change for a deeper understanding of what it means to be Indigenous, and toward a wider shared social identity. Their work unequivocally states their essential presence and profound connection to country and culture that nourishes a sense of identity and place – being and belonging – here and now.

ARTIST and CURATOR GALLERY TALKS
 
Wednesday 29 Feb & Thursday 1st March
Tandanya Gallery 12:30-1:30pm 

Wednesday 29th Feb

• Lorraine Connelly-Northey Vic / NSW
• Sandra Saunders SA

   

Thursday 1st March

• Beaver Lennon, SA
• Trevor Nickolls, SA
• Yhonnie Scarce, SA / Vic
• Julie Gough   

ARTISTS

Tjungu Payla (SA):
Keith Stevens and Ginger Wilkilyiri (Nyapari SA)  

Tjanpi Desert Weavers (SA/NT/WA):
Nyurpaya Kaika, Naomi Kantjuriny, Ilawanti Ungkutjuru Ken, Paniny Mick, Yaritji Young, (all Amata SA); Niningka Lewis, Tjunkaya Tapaya, (Pukatja (Ernabella) SA); Rene Kulitja, (Mutijulu, NT)

C0-CURATORS

Fulvia Mantelli (Project Manager), SA
Renee Johnson (Project Coordinator, Mentee), SA   

CURATORIAL ADVISORS

Troy-Anthony Baylis, SA
Nici Cumpston, SA
Brenda L. Croft, NT / NSW

Tandanya – NACI (08) 8224 3234
Renee Johnson visualarts@tandanya.com.au
Fulvia Mantelli fulvia.mantelli@gmail.com