Cairns Art Gallery Members Magazine #73 by CAIRNS ART GALLERY

CAIRNS ART GALLERY JUNE - AUGUST 2018 MEMBERS NEWSLETTER | 73

DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD

IMAGE COVER AND ABOVE Athi-Patra Ruga The future white woman of Azania (detail) 2012 inkjet print 80 x 100 cm Courtesy of the Artist Photograph: Ruth Simbao, South Africa 1

I am thrilled that, to coincide with the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF), the Gallery is presenting its first major exhibition as part of an ongoing program that focuses on global black art and culture. Continental Drift: Black/Blak Art from South Africa and North Australia is a thought provoking exhibition that brings together works by seven South African artists and eight north Queensland artists. While both countries have shared experiences of British colonisation, it is the way that contemporary black artists in both countries have chosen to interrogate and interpret these experiences that is most revealing and challenging.

relating to traditional hunting and food gathering practices.

Not to be missed are two other exhibitions in our CIAF program this year- one that explores the significance of the pearling industry within Indigenous art and culture and another celebrating Indigenous food, culture and design

I do hope you will enjoy all the exhibitions and programs we are presenting to support this year’s Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.

In recent years we have been actively seeking to redress identified gaps in the Collection through the support of the Gallery Foundation and its Annual Giving Campaign. This has resulted in the commissioning of a major work by Danie Mellor that is now on display in the Mellor exhibition, Proximity and Perception. We are thrilled that this year’s Giving Campaign is supporting the purchase of a work by one of Australia’s rising stars in the international art world, Tony Albert, that will be on display in the Continental Drift exhibition.

Andrea May Churcher Director

UNTIL 24 JUN ‘18

SEEING VOICES Seeing voices is an extraordinary, experiential exhibition that has captivated the imagination of audiences around Australia. A special feature of the exhibition presentation is an art performance by Swedish-born performance artist, Erik Bünger. The Gallery is thrilled that Bünger, who lives and works in Berlin, will be in Cairns to give a public performance on Saturday 23 June. Bünger is internationally recognised for his thesis that the voice has always been “inauthentic”. He contends that, unlike a monkey or a horse, which make the natural sounds they are born with, humans learn to speak.

It can be used as a metaphor for collective action, for speaking out against injustice and coming together in gestures of solidarity. The voice can be a marker of cultural and geographic specificity, or the trace of disappearing language. It may also function like a spiritual medium - through its historical recording and archiving it time travels to haunt the present. The voice is also an index, a measure of position, perspective, distance and emotion. In private, in public, in conversation, on record – the voice connects our experiences with those of others.

Through the work of eighteen artists, the exhibition explores how the voice is visualised through contemporary art in a range of media to create a textured, layered and immersive environment. In addition to selected artworks from the Monash University Collection, Seeing voices features loans from Australian and international artists represented in the exhibition.

Seeing voices A NETS Victoria and Monash University Museum of Art I MUMA touring exhibition

Together works in the exhibition develop different narratives around the theme of the voice and the ways it can be seen, used and reimagined.

» ART PERFORMANCE The Elephant Who Was A Rhinoceros with Erik Bünger, Swedish artist currently based in Berlin Saturday 23 June, 2.00pm Cost: Free

IMAGE: Erik Bünger performing The girl who never was. National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. NETS Victoria also receives significant in-kind support from the National Gallery of Victoria. 3

UNTIL 1 JUL ‘18

FRED WILLIAMS

WEIPA SERIES, CAPE YORK This is the first major exhibition of works by Fred Williams presented in Far North Queensland, and brings together thirty works from Williams’ famous Weipa series of gouaches, including five works from the Cairns Art Gallery’s own collection. Williams is arguably one of Australia’s most influential and important twentieth century landscape painters and his exhibition has attracted national media attention. Arts writer for The Australian, Nicholas Rothwell, commended the Gallery on its exhibition, noting that: “As with most of Williams’s output, photographic reproductions convey no sense of the visual depth and the vivid, living quality of the originals. These are artworks that seek to grasp the bush, to come to terms with it, not merely to record it but to accept it in all its strange order.”1

When Williams flew to Weipa in 1977, he was at the height of his career. What was so important for Williams was that the flight in a light aircraft gave him the opportunity to view the landscape from an aerial perspective, a viewpoint that previously he could only imagine. The experience of viewing the vast expanse of Cape York from above had a profound effect on him. Rothwell contends that contemporaneous artists such as Sidney Nolan and John Olsen “operated on a grand scale in their bid to catch the Australian landscape (while Williams used) his gift of precision and attention in his bid to record – to fix its shifting surface and veiled depth… The value of the Weipa works rest precisely in their tentativeness, their modesty, their accuracy of tone”. 1 Nicholas Rothwell, The Australian “Fred William’s Weipa series at Cairns Gallery”, April 20, 2018

» EXHIBITION CATALOGUE available in the Gallery Shop $12.95 Fred Williams Weipa landscape 1978 gouache 57 x 75.5 cm Private Collection, Melbourne Photograph: Mark Ashkanasy 5

UNTIL 1 JUL ‘18

DANIE MELLOR

PROXIMITY AND PERCEPTION The following is an excerpt from the essay by Cairns Gallery Curator, Ashleigh Campbell. Danie Mellor is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. Mellor was born of Indigenous and European cultural heritage in Mackay, Queensland, in 1971. Artworks in this exhibition explore Mellor’s engagement with the history, culture and landscape of his matrilineal Country of the rainforest region of Far North Queensland. Mellor’s artworks are visually seductive and conceptually arresting. He deliberately employs European aesthetic and pictorial devices associated with the colonial period to subvert and reimagine the complex collision of Australia’s pre and post-settlement history. Works in this exhibition provide a context for his newly commissioned artwork for the Cairns Art

IMAGE PAGE 7|8 Danie Mellor Dulgu-burra (a procession of history) 2018 wax pastel, crayon, coloured pencil, wash with oil pigment, watercolour and pencil with glitter and Swarovski crystals on paper 98 x 149 cm Commissioned by the Cairns Art Gallery Foundation and donated to the Cairns Art Gallery, 2018 Photograph: Mim Stirling, 2018 9

Gallery collection, which was purchased with the support of the Gallery Foundation. Dulgu-burra (a procession of history) 2018 depicts an idyllic scene of Bama (rainforest people), going about daily life beside a river. A protagonistic tree kangaroo stares out from the centre of the white river gum canopy, flanked by a cornucopia of colourful kingfishers, king parrots and Bajinjila (black Spangled Drongo birds). It is a Utopia in one sense, however the landscape also conveys what Mellor refers to as ‘Arcadian melancholy’. This landscape speaks of colonialism, and an age of expansion that irrevocably transformed the lives of people and complex ecology not just of Northern Queensland, but Australia and also the globe. Danie Mellor, 12 March 2018

IMAGE RIGHT Danie Mellor The distance (envisioning Girrugarr) 2017 Lambda print on metallic photographic paper 127 x 153 cm Private Collection, Melbourne Image courtesy Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane

UNTIL 1 JUL ‘18

SELLING THE SHADOW Derrick Adams, Endia Beal, Amir George, Lauren Kelley, Michèle Magema, Jefferson Pinder, Tabita Rezaire and Jessica Wimbley

Tabita Rezaire Hoetep Blessings 2016 one channel video 12.27 mins Courtesy of the Artist and Goodman Gallery, South Africa 11

Selling the Shadow is curated by Ingrid LaFleur.

The title of the exhibition references the abolitionist and women’s rights activities of African American activist, Sojourner Truth. From 1859 through to the early 1900’s, Truth financed her political work by selling a small Carte de Visite of her portrait inscribed with the words, “I sell the shadow to support the substance”. A pioneer not only politically, but also in her method of appropriating and ultimately controlling her own image during a period, the United States Civil War, when alternate presentations of a black woman’s body prevailed, to this day Sojourner Truth invites audiences to

reflect on the mechanisms of signs and signifiers, and to identity constructs and narrative strategies utilised in creating and maintaining power structures.

Selling the Shadow presents nine media works by contemporary African-American and African artists. Works selected for the exhibition examine the relationship between art and social practice through video. Artists represented in the exhibition share issues of confrontation, and explore themes of identity, history, and the social structures that play a role, not only in creating their own work, but also in its consumption and the way in which it is activated.

UNTIL 17 JUN ‘18

OBSESSED!

COMPELLED TO MAKE Obsessed! Compelled to make explores the preoccupations that drive the creative process. Moving beyond the finished work, the exhibition tells the hidden stories of making - uncovering the artists’ inspirations, day-to-day studio experiences, hours of work, and the joys and frustrations of obsession. Through the work of fourteen Australian artists and artisans, different stories of creation are revealed. Each artist’s story is unique, yet together they tell the high and low points of creating something, and the fundamental human need to make. The “makers” selected for inclusion in the Australian Design Centre’s touring exhibition work across a spectrum of media, from textiles, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, jewellery, conceptual art, glass blowing and sculptural weaving.

Presented by:

Government partners:

Supported by:

Catalogue supported by:

“This exhibition explores the act of making through the framework of obsession – how it consumes us, carrying us along in its wake, colouring every aspect of our lives. With professional artists, it is their obsessions, and all the associated angst, failures, breakthroughs and milestones, that feed the kind of productivity that could not be achieved in any other way,” says exhibition co-curator, Penny Craswell. The artists represented in the exhibition are Gabriella Bisetto, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Honor Freeman, Jon Goulder, Kath Inglis, Laura McCusker, Elliat Rich and James B Young (Elbowrkshp), Kate Rohde, Oliver Smith, Vipoo Srivilasa, Tjunkaya Tapaya, Louise Weaver, and Liz Williamson.

Touring partner:

IMAGE Vipoo Srivilasa, 2017. Photograph by Angus Lee Forbes.

Obsessed: Compelled to make is an Australian Design Centre (ADC On Tour) national touring exhibition, presented with assistance from the Australian Government Visions of Australia program.

Obsessed: Compelled to make is an Australian Design Centre (ADC On Tour) national touring exhibition, presented with assistance from the Australian Government Visions of Australia program. The Visions of Australia regional exhibition touring program supports audience access to Australian arts and cultural material, with a particular focus on tours to regional and remote Australia. Australian Design Centre is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. Australian Design Centre is assisted by the New South Wales Government through Create NSW, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

CIAF 2018 PROGRAM

CAIRNS ART GALLERY

OPENING EVENT

ARTISTS’ AND CURATOR TALK

Wednesday 11 July, 6.00pm

Thursday 12 July, 12.00 - 12.30pm

Welcome to Country by Henrietta Fourmile-Marrie Featuring Malu Kawai Dancers from Boigu Island

North By East West with artists Darrell Sibosado, Garry Sibosado, Joel Sam, Sam Savage and curators Janina Harding, Artistic Director, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and Teho Ropeyarn, Assistant Curator, Cairns Art Gallery

GUIDED EXHIBITION TOUR Thursday 12 July, 10.30 - 11.15am

Continental Drift: Black / Blak Art from South Africa and north Australia with Neelika Jayawardane, Associate Professor, State University of New York-Oswego and Carly Lane, Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia

CURATORS’ TALK

Thursday 12 July, 12.30 - 1.00pm

Mara: Indigenous design, politics and food culture with Bernard Singleton Jnr, Guest Curator and Teho Ropeyarn, Assistant Curator, Cairns Art Gallery

ARTISTS’ TALK

Thursday 12 July, 11.15am - 12.00pm

Continental Drift: Black / Blak Art from South Africa and North Australia with artists Hannah Bronte, Tony Albert, Michael Cook, Paul Bong

This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Backing Indigenous Arts initiative, which aims to build a stronger, more sustainable and ethical Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts industry in the State

IMAGE Hannah Bronte Still I Rise 2016 one channel video, sound, 3:53 mins Courtesy of the artist 15

6 JUL - 23 SEPT ‘18

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

BLACK / BLAK ART FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND NORTH AUSTRALIA Continental Drift is the first major exhibition from a new Gallery program that celebrates and examines global black art and culture. Continental Drift highlights the shared experiences of contemporary blak/black artists from South Africa and north Australia. While both countries have different histories, British colonisation had dramatic effects on their black peoples, many of which continue to be experienced today. Australian artists represented in the exhibition are Fiona Foley, Tony Albert, Michael Cook, Dale Harding, Hannah Bronte, Gordon Hookey, Paul Bong and Archie Moore; South African artists represented in the exhibition are Mohau Modisakeng, Berni Searle, Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Kudzanai Chiurai and Athi-Patra Ruga.

» OPENING EVENT

Wednesday 11 July, 6.00pm Cost: Free

» GUIDED EXHIBITION TOUR with Neelika Jayawardane, Associate Professor, State University of New York-Oswego and Carly Lane, Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia Thursday 12 July, 10.30 - 11.15am Cost: Free

» ARTIST TALKS with Tony Albert, Paul Bong, Hannah Bronte and Michael Cook Thursday 12 July, 11.15am - 12.00pm Cost: Free

A Cairns Art Gallery exhibition presented in partnership with Cairns Indigenous Art Fair This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Backing Indigenous Arts initiative, which aims to build a stronger, more sustainable and ethical Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts industry in the State

Michael Cook INVASION (detail) 2017 digital print, 135 x 200 cm Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane 17

Continental Drift is a Cairns Art Gallery exhibition presented in partnership with the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF). The supporting publication includes essays by Professor Neelika Jayawardane and Carly Lane. Neelika is an Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York-Oswego, a founding member of the online magazine, Africa is a Country, and grew up in Zimbabwe. Carly Lane is a Murri woman from Queensland and is the Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

The following Abstracts by Prof Jayawardane and Carly Lane explain their reading of issues raised by the artists in the exhibition. South Africa is a landscape that has been passionately theorised and conceptualised as an idealised landscape that represents European settlers’ longings for a “homespace”. However, it is also a nation that un-homed millions over several centuries of colonial and white supremacist rule; it is a location where colonial, settler, and white-minority-elected administrations made systematic, concentrated efforts to erase or completely marginalise its existing black populations using genocide, forced removals, and socio-economic and legal

structures intended to exclude and dehumanise. To the majority of its black population, this “homespace” remains a place of profound alienation and unbelonging. Artistic and literary works created primarily by white South Africans have historically reflected the complexities of what it means to feel at home in this nation. On the one hand, an entire body of literature and visual art express an almost proprietary sense of belonging, communicated through idealised relationships with the landscape, seascape, flora and fauna; on the other, another set of literature and art emote counter-feelings of unease within this hard-won belonging. Those contradictory sentiments – the poetry of the heart’s longing for a projected ideal, as well as the alienation and unease – rests on the knowledge that one’s construction of home was, and continues to be, directly dependent on “others” being forcibly un-homed. It betrays the fact that the white writer or artist may not feel completely at ease; it reveals that their fear of being exposed as an alien-outsider is a constant companion, even as their practice may work to overlook, evade, or suppress that difficult truth. Contemporary black artists from South Africa work with a richer set of tensions, though they, too, reflect on the fundamental unease of unbelonging, of being reminded – through both overt violence and daily microaggressions – that

Fiona Foley Opiate of Opulence from the Horror has a face series (detail) 2017 digital print 45 x 80 cm Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane 19

they are out of place. Berni Searle, Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi, Kudzanai Chiurai, Athi-Patra Ruga, Mohau Modisakeng, and Buhlebezwe Siwani’s respective artistic practices thus meditate on the ways in which apartheid strictures controlled, directed, and distorted the ways in which black people’s bodies, intellects, sexualities, cultural practices, and relationship to their environments were represented through a racist lens, and how those erroneous representations continue to impose themselves on their day-to-day lives. The nervous conditions that result from living within an environment that make them hyperaware of their difference – where they must consciously protect their individual subjectivities against the imperative to reduce them to their use-value as expendable labourers, and where they are categorised as dehumanised others – is an essential part of the aesthetics, intellectual frameworks, and politics of their art. But contemporary artists’ practices also offer them the space to creatively theorise the impact of Southern Africa’s socio-political history on the construction of black personhood, as well as notions of gender, sexuality, and taboo. Through acknowledging the ruptures produced by this region’s violent history, they are able to speculate about alternative possibilities, and address the necessity of making radical breaks from existing cultural norms and expectations. This extraordinary gift – freedom from previously

accepted constraints, and the ability to selffashion, to forge one’s own set of boundaries and direct the course of one’s life – are the unintended consequence of a society that buckled under repressive and violent social conditions. Cairns Gallery’s exhibition includes works that reflect the fundamental ruptures, as well as the remarkable possibilities produced by South Africa’s history. M. Neelika Jayawardane April 2018 It has been a while since an exhibition like Continental Drift: Black/Blak art from South Africa and North Australia (and the National Gallery of Australia’s 2018 exhibition Colony: Australia 1770-1861/Frontier Wars) has openly and almost exclusively dealt with the concept of colonisation in Australia, or elsewhere. In 1988, the bicentenary year of this country, we witnessed numerous exhibitions, protests and celebrations about the irreversible landing of the British at Sydney Cove in 1788. And, it seems, the further we get from these events, the less we focus on colonisation as a subject in its own right. Though, perhaps we should revisit the subject, as colonisation is the foundation stone of contemporary Australia that continues to impact on Australian values today.

Continental Drift pauses to reflect on the current state of colonisation in Australia. It does this

Mary Sibande Caught in the Rapture 2009 archival digital print 45 x 80 cm Courtesy of the artist and Gallery MOMO, South Africa 21

from the viewpoint of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, alongside new and distant voices from South Africa. Colonisation, after all, is a global affair. Fifteen artists speak in unison about their experience of colonisation. Works of art by eight artists from northern Australia, and seven from South Africa provide contemporary insights into colonisation and post-colonisation in Australia and South Africa respectively. The Australian artists are Tony Albert, Paul Bong, Hannah Bronte, Michael Cook, Fiona Foley, Gordon Hookey, Dale Harding and Archie Moore. They are joined by South African artists – Kudzanai Chiurai, Mohau Modisakeng, Zanele Muholi, Athi-Patra Ruga, Berni Searle, Mary Sibande and Buhlebezwe Siwani. Together they present a range of subjects and media such as photography, textile installations, mixed media, painting, video and works on paper. The artists explore different subjects that broadly address four themes relating to colonisation. These themes range from the act of colonisation to what you might call impact statements – people’s experience of dislocation, gender and identity, and activism. In this mixing of voices, we widen the conversation about colonisation. As a result, we begin to see continuities from the past and across continents. Though not only about the oppression and complexity of

colonisation, but importantly how people choose to live in spite of it. Broadly speaking, Fiona Foley and Dale Harding reveal the fatal days of early colonisation, while Paul Bong and Michael Cook examine the experience of being dislocated from culture and Country. Hannah Bronte and Tony Albert turn their attention to gender and identity under colonial rule, while Gordon Hookey and Archie Moore use the power of words and their meaning to take the fight up to the nation. Hookey and Moore show excellence in activism, but it can be said of all the artists in Continental Drift that sometime or another they each play the role of activist.

Continental Drift is a timely exposition of, and a great metaphor for, colonisation. The Macquarie Dictionary refers to ‘continental drift’ as ‘a theory concerning the movement of the continents away from an original single landmass to their present position’. If we take the view that colonisation is the original landmass, then the Australian and South African artists must be the continents (people) shifting away; shifting from a place that is no longer viable or in concert with their communities’ ideals. Carly Lane April 2018

Mohau Modisakeng photograph from Ditalo series 2014 Inkjet print 150 x 200 cm Courtesy of the artist and WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 23

6 JUL - 19 AUG ‘18

NORTH BY EAST WEST North by East West celebrates the relationship between Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal cultures through a shared history based around the pearl shell, which was used both as a cultural medium and a commodity for industry. The traditional cultural practice of pearl shell carving and design continues today in the Torres Strait as well as the Kimberley Coast by contemporary artists through the creation of wood sculptures, fine jewellery, etchings and prints. The exhibition includes works by Torres Strait Islander artists, Sam Savage and Joel Sam, and two Bard artists, brothers Darrell Sibosado and Garry Sibosado. Historically the Bard and Torres Strait Islanders practised the art of pearl shell carving. Both groups used the technique for adornment objects in ceremony. Each carving design has a story that teaches us about the sea, the land and the people. Today the intricate practice of pearl shell carving has continued to pass down stories from one generation to the next.

Today, pearl shells and traditional designs are incorporated into intricate contemporary jewellery designs. Pearl shell carving has also been reimagined onto works on paper, where stories are told through printmaking, etchings and graphic designs. Both cultural groups share a common ground by featuring the pearl shell in their respective artistic practices, including dance and music.

» OPENING EVENT Wednesday 11 July, 6.00pm Cost: Free

» ARTIST TALKS with Darrell Sibosado, Garry Sibosado, Joel Sam and Sam Savage Thursday 12 July, 12.00 - 12.30pm Cost: Free

Co-curated by, and presented in partnership with Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Backing Indigenous Arts initiative, which aims to build a stronger, more sustainable and ethical Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts industry in the State

IMAGE: Garry Sibosado Dyimmorgamol (Warrior) 2018 etched mother of pearl, ochre Collection of the artist Photograph: Michael Marzik 25

29 JUN - 9 SEP ‘18

MARA

INDIGENOUS DESIGN, POLITICS AND FOOD CULTURE Mara: Indigenous design, politics and food culture celebrates the cultural heritage and living culture of Aboriginal people in north Queensland. In the local Djabuguy, Yirrganydji, Bulway, Nyagali and Gulay language groups mara means hand, and in this context it refers to the hand that makes, gathers, prepares and hunts. This exhibition brings together more than two hundred traditional and contemporary artefacts used for hunting and food gathering in Far North Queensland. Many of the works on display are on loan from the Kowanyama Culture and Research Centre (a community keeping place) that has an extensive and impressive collection of rare objects and artefacts. In 2008 it was assessed as a Collection of National Significance. The Gallery is thrilled that a number of these have been loaned to the exhibition, while other works are on loan from the Cairns Historical Society and private lenders. Responding to the themes of the exhibition, a number of Cairns based artists have completed new works for the exhibition. The exhibition presents designed objects that are used in food gathering and preparation as a large-scale installation work. Also represented are designed objects used as adornments in

ceremonial and cultural practices that utilise the bones, teeth and the shells of the hunted animals. It also highlights the continuing importance of Country to Aboriginal people, and the legal battles that were, and continue to be, fought to maintain traditional hunting rights on the land and in waterways to sustain these practices.

» OPENING EVENT Wednesday 11 July, 6.00pm Cost: Free

» CURATORS’ TALK with Bernard Singleton Jnr - Guest Curator and Teho Ropeyarn, Curator, Cairns Art Gallery Thursday 12 July, 12.30 - 1.00pm Cost: Free

Bernard Singleton Gimala (fire stick) 2017 Grass tree, bamboo, clay, ochre, string, feathers Photograph: Michael Marzik 27

24 AUG - 7 OCT â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;18

OLAF & KERSTENS Erwin Olaf and Hendrik Kerstens are internationally renowned contemporary photographers from the Netherlands. While each artist draws inspiration from the work of the Dutch Masters, their subject and approach to photography is very different. Erwin Olaf is an interdisciplinary artist who works across photography, video and installation. His work has been described as provocative and unsettling. Through portraits that emulate the style of the Dutch masters, Olaf scrutinises societal frictions and the individuals affected, and draws the viewer into his surreal, filmic narrative, while maintaining the distance of the critical observer.

Unlike Olaf, Hendrik Kerstens did not train formally as an artist. In 1995, at the age of forty, he retired to care for his young daughter Paula and took up photography while his wife Anna continued to work. Raising a child had a deep impression on Kerstens and photography allowed him to explore his feelings of responsibility, vulnerability and love that he felt towards his daughter. Early portraits of Paula focused on everyday life with a young child, but as Paula grew physically and psychologically, Kerstens searched for an artistic manifestation of these changes, leading to his interpretations of the great Dutch master painters of the 17th century with Paula as his muse.

Olaf is represented in many international collections and has had solo exhibitions at Bilbao Art Centre, the Modern Art Gallery in Bologna, Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art, and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Hendrik Kerstens Doily 2011 raw/color negative 4/5 inch - ultrachrome Courtesy of the artist 29

Olaf and Kerstens is presented at the Cairns Art Gallery with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 30

» CAIRNS ART GALLERY FOUNDATION

This year’s annual gala dinner was a very special event and more than one hundred and twenty guests had the opportunity to hear Dame Quentin Bryce and Angus Trumble, Director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) discuss Bryce’s portrait by renowned Australian artist, Michael Zavros and how the work was commissioned for the NPG Collection. The Foundation dinner is a wonderful opportunity for Foundation members, guests and new donors to come together for a night of fine food, wine, conversation and fun. We were delighted that artist Tony Albert was able to join us on the night to talk about his work. Albert has strong family connections to the Girramay and Kuku Yalanji people and is one of the rising stars of the national and international contemporary art world. This year our Annual Giving Campaign will raise funds to purchase a major work by Albert for the Gallery’s Collection.

As the Chair, one of my greatest pleasures is meeting visiting artists such as Danie Mellor, Tony Albert and James Morrison, all of whom are now represented in the Collection with the support of the Foundation. I am thrilled that Danie Mellor was in Cairns for the unveiling of his new work which was supported by the Foundation’s 2017 Annual Giving Campaign, and which takes pride of place in the exhibition Proximity and Perception. For those who could not join us at the dinner, I do hope you will consider donating to this year’s Annual Giving Campaign. Donations are fully tax deductible and can be made online at www. cairnsartgallery.com.au/join-support/foundation/ donate Finally thank you to fellow Board Directors and the Pullman Reef Hotel for making this year’s dinner such a special event. Lea Ovaska Chair, Cairns Art Gallery Foundation 32

» CAIRNS ART GALLERY MEMBERS » GALLERY BIRTHDAY SPECIAL Special Member’s Shopping Day 13-15 July 20% discounted shopping for all members and a guest

MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM PARTNER IMAGE: Kids Art Club with Hayley Gillespie in Project another country: Passage by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan 33

Becoming a Member of the Cairns Art Gallery is your way to get closer to our exhibitions, public program, the Gallery Collection, children’s creative learning workshops and holiday activities. As a Member you will enjoy a range of exclusive discounts at the Gallery Shop and Perrotta’s Café/Bar, and meet like-minded people at exhibition openings, visiting artists talks and other social events throughout the year. Now that entry to the Gallery is free, we have recently reviewed and simplified Membership levels and the pricing structure, and created new Member benefits. The Gallery is a not-for-profit company and becoming a Member is a very special way that you can help support the exhibitions and events that we put on during the year.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

NEW MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES (effective 1 June 2018)

Individual $40 (adult 16+) Family $60 (2 adults 16+) Senior $30 (Senior card holder) Concession $20* ˚ * Holders of student cards, pension cards and teachers. ˚ Organisations may purchase membership at $20 per member paid in one transaction.

HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER Becoming a member is easy. Simply go on line www.cairnsartgallery.com.au/join-support, see our friendly visitor services staff in the Gallery Shop, or phone us on (07) 4046 4800.

• Unlimited free Gallery entry • 10% discount on purchases in The Gallery Shop for Members and one guest • Invitations to Members Shopping Days where Members and one guest receive discounts and special offers • Advance notice of, and invitations to exhibition opening events and artist talks • Members’ discounted pricing and priority booking on Art Classes, events and Workshops • 10% table discount at Perrotta’s at the Gallery • Gallery Shop discount vouchers to give to friends • A subscription to Cairns Art Gallery Magazine • Discounted rate at Mantra Hotel Cairns Group • VIP rate at Hilton Hotel Cairns • 10% discount on gift membership • 10% discount at The Picture Framer Cairns • Invitations to visiting Artist and Curator talks • Invitation to the Gallery Foundation gala dinner 34

DIARY DATES

JULY

2-11 SCHOOL HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS 7

JUNE

1 ADULT SUPPORTED ART CLASS CERAMICS 9.30AM - 12.00PM ADULT SUPPORTED ART CLASS 15 TEXTILES 9.30AM - 12.00PM 17

FINAL DAY OBSESSED! COMPELLED TO MAKE

ART PERFORMANCE WITH ERIK BÜNGER 2.00PM FINAL DAY SEEING VOICES

ADULT SUPPORTED ART CLASS 29 CERAMICS 9.30AM - 12.00PM

JULY 1

FINAL DAY FRED WILLIAMS WEIPA SERIES, CAPE YORK

FINAL DAY SELLING THE SHADOW

FINAL DAY DANIE MELLOR PROXIMITY AND PERCEPTION

KIDS ART CLUB WITH HAYLEY GILLESPIE 10.00AM - 12.00PM YOUNG CREATIVES WITH HAYLEY GILLESPIE 3.00 - 5.00PM

EXHIBITION OPENING EVENT 11 CAIRNS ART GALLERY, CAIRNS INDIGENOUS ART FAIR 2018 PROGRAM CONTINENTAL DRIFT MARA NORTH BY EAST WEST 6.00PM 12 GUIDED EXHIBITION TOUR CONTINENTAL DRIFT 10.30AM ARTISTS’ TALK CONTINENTAL DRIFT 11.15AM

ARTISTS’ TALK NORTH BY EAST WEST 12.00PM CURATORS’ TALK MARA 12.30PM 13-15

MEMBERS’ SHOPPING WEEKEND MEMBERS RECEIVE A 20% DISCOUNT IN THE GALLERY SHOP ON ALL PURCHASES

16 BOTANICAL DRAWING CLASSES WITH JULIE MCENERNY STARTS MONDAYS 5.15 - 7.15PM ADULT SUPPORTED ART CLASS 20 TEXTILES 9.30AM - 12.00PM

AUGUST

KIDS ART CLUB WITH HAYLEY GILLESPIE 10.00AM - 12.00PM

LEVEL 1 ART CLASSES START WITH ADRIENNE SHAW 3.45 - 4.45PM

LEVEL 3 ART CLASSES START 6 MONDAYS 3.30 - 5.00PM

LEVEL 2 ART CLASSES START 8 WEDNESDAYS 3.30 - 5.00PM LEVEL 3 ART CLASSES START 9 THURSDAYS 3.30 - 5.00PM

KIDS FINE ART CLASSES AT KEWARRA BEACH WITH ADRIENNE SHAW 3.30 - 5.00PM

LEVEL 2 ART CLASSES START 10 FRIDAYS 3.30 - 5.00PM LEVEL 2 ART CLASSES START 11 SATURDAYS 10.00 - 11.30AM

»CREATIVE WORKSHOPS

WEDNESDAY 4 JULY

MONDAY 9 JULY

* CHILDREN UNDER 6 YEARS OF AGE MUST BE WITH AN ADULT GUARDIAN

Ages 9 – 15 years | 10.00am – 2.30pm Cost $28 ($33 non-members)

Ages 7 – 9 years | 10.00 – 11.30am Cost $14 ($17 non-members)

ARTISTS AND TECHNIQUES ARE CORRECT AT TIME OF PRINTING. CAIRNS ART GALLERY RESERVES THE RIGHT TO VARY PROGRAM CONTENT WHERE NECESSARY.

A workshop focussed on learning and fine-tuning technical painting skills with watercolour. Participants will be using artist grade materials and will complete a painting to take home.

Ages 9 – 13 years | 1.00 – 3.00pm Cost $16 ($19 non-members)

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL WWW.CAIRNSARTGALLERY.COM.AU

»SCHOOL HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS MONDAY 2 JULY

SQUISHY CIRCUIT WITH DANNIE WEI, ARTIST Ages 6 – 9 years | 10.00 – 11.30am Cost $19 ($24 non-members) Use homemade play-doh to build electronic sculptures that light up, move, and make sounds. By adding different ingredients to the dough, it becomes a fun part of a circuit. ELECTRONICS INTO EVERYDAY FASHION WITH DANNIE WEI, ARTIST Ages 9 – 14 years | 1.00 – 3.00pm Cost $23 ($28 non-members) Use conductive thread, LED’s and basic circuit design to light up an item of clothing or bag. Bring a T-shirt from home for your design, or choose to make a blinking bag.

TUESDAY 3 JULY

GO FISH - WEAVING WITH PAM KUSABS & MARCIA BIRD, ARTISTS Ages 8 – 12 years | 10.00am – 12.00pm Cost $16 ($19 non-members) Use a combination of natural materials and electrical wire to weave fish using contemporary basket making techniques. Create a simple bamboo fishing rod to display your catch.

WATERCOLOUR PAINTING WITH JIM REA, ARTIST

Please bring lunch and a drink to this workshop.

THURSDAY 5 JULY

AUTOMATA WORKSHOP WITH DANNIE WEI, ARTIST

Ages 6 – 10 years | 10.00am – 12.00pm Cost $14 ($17 non-members) Automata is a type of kinetic sculpture made of simple materials which let you bring stories to life. As you build you can explore simple machine elements in a playful way. Participants will make their moving creation using wood and other materials. OR

Ages 11 – 15 years | 1.00 – 3.30pm Cost $16 ($19 non-members) Imagine you are a director making your own mini-theatre with cardboard and other material, in which some elements can move. As you build you can explore simple machine elements in a playful way.

FRIDAY 6 JULY

EMBOSSING WITH MEIYIN AHNSUZ, ARTIST & DISABILITY ARTS’ FACILITATOR

Ages 5 – 8 years* | 10.00 – 11.30am Cost $14 ($17 non-members) OR

Ages 9 – 14 years | 1.00 – 3.00pm Cost $16 ($19 non-members) Participants will learn how to do embossing and will design and create an image using embossing foil, which will be mounted on board and finished as a wall hanging.

STRING DRAWINGS WITH ADRIENNE SHAW, ARTIST & TEACHER

In this workshop students will learn how to draw with thread. A simple line drawing will be plotted and developed into a tangible work of art.

TUESDAY 10 JULY

STREETSCAPE DRAWING WITH ADRIENNE SHAW, ARTIST & TEACHER

Ages 7 – 9 years | 10.00 – 11.30am Cost $14 ($17 non-members)

Participants will acquire basic knowledge in perspective drawing techniques to take home their own streetscape drawing. MIXED MEDIA CONSTRUCTION WITH ADRIENNE SHAW, ARTIST & TEACHER

Ages 9 – 14 years | 1.00 – 3.00pm Cost $16 ($19 non-members)

Kids will use cardboard to build up a mixed-media relief, using the principles of perspective to depict a streetscape.

WEDNESDAY 11 JULY

BALSA WOODBLOCK PRINTING WITH MEIYIN AHNSUZ, ARTIST & DISABILITY ARTS’ FACILITATOR

Ages 8 – 13 years | 10.00am – 12.30pm Cost $19 ($24 non-members)

Traditional and experimental techniques are used to carve an image in Balsa wood. Participants will then print their design on special paper to take home.

» GALLERY KIDS ART CLUB WITH HAYLEY GILLESPIE AGES 8 – 12 YEARS Saturdays 10.00am – 12.00pm Block 2: 7 July, 4 August, 1 September Block 3: 6 October, 3 November, 1 December Cost per block $24 ($30 non-members)

Our special club for children aged 8 – 12 is all about creative experiences and activities with ART as the focus. Kids will enjoy a program designed by artist Hayley Gillespie that will be full of fun and a way for kids to make new creative friends. The two-hour Art Club sessions are held at the Gallery or other inner city locations. Kids are introduced to new ways of looking at, talking and thinking about art, craft and design, including fashion, architecture and theatre. In some instances sessions may involve individual or collective art making, in which case materials will be provided. Parents are asked to take kids to and from prearranged locations if required.

» YOUNG CREATIVES CLUB WITH HAYLEY GILLESPIE

AGES 13 - 17 YEARS Saturdays 3.00 – 5.00pm 7 July, 4 August, 1 September, 6 October, 3 November Cost $60 ($75 non-members) The Young Creatives is a club for participants of high school age who meet once a month for a two-hour session. Art related activities and discussions will be facilitated by Hayley Gillespie and follow a program collectively chosen by the Young Creatives. This is a great way to work on and share artistic projects, collaborate and hang out with like-minded students, while learning about contemporary art, design, multi-media, photography and music. Basic art materials are included however a small contribution may be required for specific projects and activities. Sessions are held at the Gallery but may occasionally be at a different location in Cairns, in which case parents are asked to facilitate transport for their teens.

»GALLERY ART SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS ENRICHMENT PROGRAM OFFERS STUDENTS PROGRAMS DESIGNED FOR EARLY PRIMARY THROUGH TO HIGH SCHOOL.

LEVEL 1

WITH ADRIENNE SHAW, ARTIST / TEACHER

5 - 7 years with parent/carer optional Cost $60 ($70 non-members) Tuesdays 3.45 - 4.45pm Term 3: 7, 14, 21, 28 August, 4, 11 September A six-week program designed for early primary schoolaged children. Adrienne Shaw will teach a range of introductory art skills based on Gallery exhibitions to complement school study.

LEVEL 2 AND LEVEL 3 CLASSES

A twelve-week program, including six classes during term three and six classes during term four.

LEVEL 2

8 - 11 years Cost $200 ($230 non-members) Wednesdays 3.30 – 5.00pm Term 3: 8, 15, 22, 29 August, 5, 12 September Term 4: 17, 24, 31 October, 7, 14, 21 November OR

Fridays 3.30 – 5.00pm Term 3: 10, 17, 24, 31 August, 7, 14 September Term 4: 19, 26 October, 2, 9, 16, 23 November OR

Saturdays 10.00 – 11.30am Term 3: 11, 18, 25 August, 1, 8, 15 September Term 4: 20, 27 October, 3, 10, 17, 24 November

LEVEL 3

11 - 16 years Cost $220 ($240 non-members)

Mondays 3.30 – 5.00pm Term 3: 6, 13, 20, 27 August, 3, 10 September Term 4: 15, 22, 29 October, 5, 12, 19 November OR

Thursdays 3.30 – 5.00pm Term 2: 9, 16, 23, 30 August, 6, 13 September Term 3: 18, 25 October, 1, 8, 15, 22 November

»KIDS FINE ART CLASSES @ KEWARRA BEACH HALL WITH ADRIENNE SHAW, ARTIST / TEACHER

6 - 12 years Cost $200 ($230 non-members) Thursdays 3.30 – 5.00pm Term 3: 9, 16, 23, 30 August, 6, 13 September Term 4: 18, 25 October, 1, 8, 15, 22 November This outreach program runs over twelve weeks at the Kewarra Beach Hall with experienced artist and teacher Adrienne Shaw, each program is designed to focus on artistic skills to complement and enhance school study. This program includes six classes in term three and six classes during term four. .

»ADULT ART CLASSES MIXED MEDIA MONTAGE WITH CRAIG HOY, ARTIST/TEACHER

TERM 2

MONDAYS 5.15 - 7.15pm (5-WEEK ART COURSE) 28 May, 4, 11, 18, 25 June Cost $120 ($140 members) During Term 2 Craig Hoy will instruct participants how to create a mixed media montage using small personal objects or artefacts. Working in a supportive atmosphere and small groups, participants can work at their own level while learning new skills and practical mixed media techniques. ADULT BOTANICAL DRAWING & PAINTING WITH JULIE MCENERNY, ARTIST MONDAYS 5.15 - 7.15pm (5-WEEK ART COURSE) 16, 23, 30 July, 6, 13 August Cost $120 ($140 members) Guided by master botanical painter Julie McEnerny, participants will sketch from live plant material and develop botanical painting skills using watercolour pencils.

»ADULT SUPPORTED ART WORKSHOPS

ADULT SUPPORTED ART WORKSHOPS WITH MEIYIN AHNSUZ, ARTIST AND DISABILITY ARTS FACILITATOR Meiyin Ahnsuz is an experienced arts facilitator in the disabilities sector. Meiyin’s workshops are designed for adults with specific needs to explore their creativity through making art. Workshops are conducted in a relaxed and social environment for people of all abilities. Morning tea and all materials are provided. The main focus of the class will alternate between textile based art, and ceramics. TACTILE TEXTILE (WEAVING, MACRAMÉ, BASKETS, SEWING ETC.) FRIDAYS 9.30am – 12.00pm 15 June, 20 July Cost $25 per session

CERAMICS (HAND-BUILDING, SCULPTURE) FRIDAYS 9.30am – 12.00pm 1 June, 29 June Cost $25 per session

»YOGA IN THE GALLERY

WITH REBECCA EDWARDS, YOGA TEACHER Mondays 5.30 – 6.30pm 4, 11, 18, 25 June 16, 23, 30 July, 6, 13 August Cost $100 ($125 non-members)

Yoga Teacher Rebecca Edwards is registered with Yoga Alliance. Conducted in the peaceful setting of the Gallery, participants will be guided through various yoga techniques, including learning postures, meditation and breathing techniques to improve core strength, the mind and the body.

NEW GALLERY 43

Flora Warria Moa Island fibre artist Tjanpi Desert Weavers A social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Council enabling women in remote central deserts to earn an income from fibre art. Baskets Starting from $33 44

» VISIT US IMAGE COVER AND PAGE 1, 2 Athi-Patra Ruga The future white woman of Azania 2012 inkjet print 80 x 100 cm Courtesy of the Artist Photograph: Ruth Simbao, South Africa

Cnr Abbott & Shields St, Cairns M to F: 9am – 5pm Sat: 10am – 5pm Sun: 10am – 2pm Closed on Public Holidays 07 4046 4800 shop@cairnsartgallery.com.au www.cairnsartgallery.com.au Cairns.Art.Gallery @cairnsartgallery @cairnsgallery CairnsArtGallery

FUNDING PARTNER IMAGE PAGE 10 Danie Mellor The distance (envisioning Girrugarr) 2017 Lambda print on metallic photographic paper 127 x 153 cm Private Collection, Melbourne Image courtesy Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane

GALLERY SPONSORS

IMAGE PAGE 18 Michael Cook INVASION 2017 digital print 135 x 200 cm Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane

IMAGE PAGE 19 Fiona Foley Opiate of Opulence from the Horror has a face series 2017 digital print 45 x 80 cm Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane