In Cahoots: artists collaborate across Country
Sat 25 Nov 2017 — Sun 28 Jan 2018
Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC)
A collaborative installation with Baluk Arts
In Cahoots: artists collaborate across Country is an expansive exhibition of new work taking over FAC’s galleries. The works are the result of 18 months of artists’ residencies in remote and regional Aboriginal art centres across Australia.
Artists from six key Aboriginal art centres invited leading independent artists – both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal – from around the country to work with them. The resulting collaborative artworks are significant, striking and bold in their inventive use of materials.
Baluk Arts is based on the Mornington Peninsula and represents Aboriginal artists from across Australia. While their origins are diverse, the Baluk community are connected by a common narrative: detachment or removal from family, language and Country, and the endeavour to reconnect. In collaboration with Perth-based artist Neil Aldum, the Baluk artists shaped sculptures that narrate their experiences of upheaval in their communities and culture. Solace and comfort flows from the sharing of these stories, as the artists weather a changing cultural landscape together. Using ancient igneous rock as their counterweights each pendulum contains works that speak of their personal stories.
The concept for the installation evolved over many months as the artists grappled with varying approaches of creating a visual landscape that spoke of their diversity, shared experiences and had a direct relationship to place. Many of the artists feel a deep connection to the sea; the coastline shapes their connection to Country, spirituality and art practice. The basalt rock and the found natural materials from around the peninsula reference this common thread and compliment the artists’ diverse practices.
Baluk Arts (VIC) artists include Kirsty Bell, Dominic Bramall-White, Gillian Garvie, Glenn Foster, Tallara Gray, Robert Kelly, Beverley Meldrum, Rebecca Robinson, Nanette Shaw, Douglas Smith, Lisa Waup and Shane Wright.
