Nathan Maynard first artist announced for full reboot of Dark Mofo in 2025
The confronting images of sheep heads preserved in bottles is set to provoke a strong response as Dark Mofo reveals its first exhibit today.
Tasmania
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The confronting images of sheep heads preserved in bottles is set to provoke a strong response as Dark Mofo reveals its first exhibit on Tuesday.
Australia’s midwinter solstice art celebration returns with renewed energy after offering a scaled-back version of the festival in 2024 to regroup.
The edgy festival of art, food and music has a full program this year, running from June 5-15 and on June 21 for the midwinter nude swim.
The first artist announced in an “enormous” line-up is Lutruwita / Tasmania’s own Trawlwoolway artist Nathan Maynard.
Maynard’s work will continue his exploration of remains, reclamation and the cultural theft and erasure of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people during invasion.
“Languishing in museums and their storerooms are the remains of ancestors of First Nations people from all around our globe,” Maynard said.
“They have been stripped of identity and, without consent, treated like specimens for study and scientific inquiry.”
The title of Maynard’s work, We Threw Them Down the Rocks Where They Had Thrown The Sheep, is a reference to The Cape Grim Massacre in 1828 in which a group of Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed by Van Diemen’s Land Company workers and their bodies thrown from a cliff.
“We Threw Them Down the Rocks Where They Had Thrown the Sheep speaks to the sadistic power white institutions flex when they deny First Nations people the humanity of putting our ancestors’ remains to rest in the physical and the spiritual,” Maynard said.
Maynard’s installation is the first work to be revealed from the Dark Mofo 2025 program – featuring two weeks of contemporary art, live music, ritual and revelry in the depths of winter – with the full line-up to be revealed on 4 April.
Dark Mofo artistic director Chris Twite said it was a “difficult decision” to scale back the program in 2024.
“But Dark Mofo is back with renewed energy and focus, ready to deliver an enormous program spanning two packed weeks this June,” he said.
Twite said he was grateful to the government and David Walsh for their continued generosity, “laying the foundation for another incredible decade of Dark Mofo”.
Six thousand prerelease tickets to the festival favourite Night Mass sold out in less than four hours in November and Twite said that was an indication of the strength of demand for the festival.
The full program for Dark Mofo 2025 will be announced on April 4.
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Originally published as Nathan Maynard first artist announced for full reboot of Dark Mofo in 2025
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