First Nations art celebrated in Sydney, and beyond
A visionary partnership between Fondation Cartier, the Sydney Biennale and the Sydney Opera House puts First Nations art up in lights.
For Townsville-based Meriam artist Gail Mabo, mapping the night skies in her work keeps her grounded. It connects her too with her father, land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo.
“Looking at the sky, the immense amount of stars, they’ve been there forever. People before us have looked at the stars. They connect us to place, time – for me it grounds me,” says Mabo.
We can forget, she says, that sometimes the smallest things can contain the biggest stories.
On the 23rd anniversary of the June 1992 Mabo decision, recognising the land rights of the Meriam people in the Torres Strait, a star was named “Koiki” for Eddie Koiki Mabo. In May 2018, a star was named for Gail’s mother, Dr Bonita Mabo.
These two stars are represented in Mabo’s new work for the next chapter of Badu Gili: Celestial (Badu Gili means “water light” in Gadigal, the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong Point), the fourth iteration of Sydney Opera House’s First Nations sails lighting project.
“I put them on the Opera House,” says Mabo of adding a “storyline” of her parents, whose presence she said she felt as she debuted her work in a preview ahead of Friday’s launch, a storm clearing just in time.
The work of First Nations artists, says Mabo, is about storytelling, sharing knowledge and creating connections.
This is a view shared by Hervé Chandès, artistic managing director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, the globally visionary contemporary art and cultural institution established by the luxury French jeweller almost 40 years ago.
Badu Gili: Celestial marks the beginning of a new four-year collaboration between Fondation Cartier and the Biennale of Sydney. For its upcoming 24th edition, Ten Thousand Suns, as visionary partner, Fondation Cartier has commissioned 14 new works by First Nations artists from around the world, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Chandès, who has worked at the Fondation Cartier for almost 20 years, says every project is always about the people behind it.
Everything starts, he says, with a “question, answer, answer, question”. Long-term relationships with artists and communities are essential. “You need time. You need to meet people, you need to be trusted by the people you meet with. And it takes time … We give the floor to the artist, we give the floor to the idea,” he says. “For me, it’s a kind of aesthetic of sharing.”
Badu Gili: Celestial, a six-minute animation to be showcased nightly on the eastern Bennelong sails for 12 months from Friday, explores practices of celestial navigation in First Nations cultures. The star maps Mabo makes out of bamboo and cotton, and Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi artist Nikau Hindin’s of aute (bark cloth), are animated by Indigenous agency Yarnology with a musical soundscape by Nigel Westlake and Te Kahureremoa Taumata and Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes. It’s the first time the project has included an international First Nations artist.
Hindin says her work for Badu Gili: Celestial shows the beauty of First Nations people. “My patterns come from a Maori worldview and a Maori visual language that is very old, and shapes that have kind of survived time. And the reason they’ve survived time is because they represent us,” she says.
“We really are trying to uplift our people and represent the beauty of our culture, the depth of our culture.”
Fondation Cartier, which last year staged in its Paris gallery a major retrospective of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s work, has also appointed Kuku Yalanji contemporary artist Tony Albert as its inaugural First Nations curatorial fellow.
The idea, says Chandès, is that “there is someone at the Biennale who is talking to the Fondation in a certain way, teaching us, sharing his knowledge”.
For Albert, the partnership showcases the importance of First Nations art and knowledge globally. “Our (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) stories have deep connection to country and to see this being fostered and appreciated through the Fondation Cartier is a dream come true for me,” he says.
“Cross-pollination and global relationships are so important in today’s world. First Nations knowledge and perspectives are coming to the forefront of many conversations in terms of community engagement and land management. The Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier is a key example of such a dynamic partnership.”
“The future for me is about fostering long-term, sustainable connections that continue to grow in scale and opportunities to ignite discussion and showcase the most innovative and important Australian art to a global audience.”
Badu Gili: Celestial will appear on the Opera House’s eastern Bennelong sails daily at sunset, 9pm, 9.30pm, 10pm and 10.30pm for 12 months. The Sydney Biennale. The 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, March 9-June 10.
Life inside ‘crack den’ at 10 Downing Street
Boris Johnson is not the only former prime minister to be appalled by the state of No.10, although one recent householder positively loved it.
Can we have the (royal) menu?
Royal menus have always been indulgent, each capturing a moment in time.