Foreword

director’s foreword

Andrea May Churcher

Ritual: the past in the present is an ambitious project based on many years of research and extensive cross-cultural conversations. It builds on the Gallery’s established reputation for exploring and interpreting the many complex narratives, histories, traditions, beliefs and issues of Australian Indigenous artists and other cultures within the Asia Pacific region and the world’s tropic zone.

In 2020, as the Gallery was poised to bring together works for the Ritual exhibition, news of the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. As countries closed their borders and travel between Australian states and territories in Australia ceased, the Gallery paused its exhibition and public programs indefinitely. This was the prevailing situation that prompted Micheal Do, one of the commissioned writers for the supporting exhibition, to write in his essay’

During this confusing kaleidoscope [COVID-19], humanity has responded - both by instinct and design - to refashion and reassert rituals in the most striking ways, using activities to formalise and mark time… Old rituals were paused, while new rituals took their place.

One of the defining characteristics of ritual is a recurrent act based on the concept of passage and transformation to bring the past into the present. In the exhibition this is explored through a juxtaposition of commissioned and loan works by Australian Indigenous and Asian Pacific artists who share understandings of cultural knowledge and beliefs, while exploring contemporary issues around identity and cultural continuity.

What is deeply interesting and what both Micheal Do and Freja Carmichael point to in their respective essays is the way in which artists from different geographical, cultural and social frameworks parallel ways of interpreting and enacting contemporary issues and conditions as a reflective and reflexive response to rituals that are steeped in culture and in times long passed.

Whether it is for reasons of otherness, or in response to a perceived similarity, this exhibition seeks to ask questions and encourage conversations prompted by the ways in which contemporary artists look to rituals as a way of interpreting and commenting on issues of cultural identity in today’s world.

From the outset, artists selected for this exhibition embraced the exhibition concept, and welcomed the opportunity to complete commissioned works or to make existing works available for the exhibition. We are indebted to the artists, their galleries and the private lenders for their generosity in lending works and for rescheduling commitments to accommodate the 12-month delay to the exhibition dates at the Gallery.

I would like to warmly thank both commissioned writers, Micheal Do and Freja Carmichael, for their extensive research and in-depth conversations with the exhibiting artists which have brought an immediacy and depth of understanding to their respective essays for this publication.

This exhibition would not have been possible without the commitment and determination of the Gallery’s curatorial team, led by senior curator Julietta Park, and curators Teho Ropeyarn and Kylie Burke. I am also indebted to Kelly Jaunzems Gallery manager, who has worked tirelessly on coordinating the content and design of this publication.

Andrea May Churcher Director

> Stephen George PAGE AO Nunukul, Munaldjali

Born Brisbane, Queensland,1965 Spear 2015