PRIMAVERA 2015: MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

YILAALU

Yilaalu with its dual meaning of a long time ago / a long time to come comments on notions of ‘old’ and ‘new’ and Aboriginal perspectives of time continuity and connectedness. This is a story of knowledge and experience, passed through generations – bringing past to the future through practices of the present. Weaving and sculpting family memory and country into fibre and clay, and embedding those energies within each tactile object. The use of air-dried clay, ironbark and string, recalls the marking of time. Each strand knotted holds a memory, cradles thought, and transports sacred knowledge from one generation to another. Materiality referencing traditional practice and function with a continued connection of country and story. Objects made from the earth will in time again return to the earth.

“Through the work I also hope to contribute to important dialogue about Aboriginal design and insights into contemporary Indigenous art practice, and custodianship of continuing cultural knowledge tradition (old and new).

Yilaalu marks the beginnings of many things and the continuation of even more. An incredible journey of responsibility,
and one I am honoured to look after and pass forward”. - Lucy Simpson

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The artists reflect survival strategies and the revival of cultural production in their work.

Primavera 2015 curator Nicole Foreshew explains: ‘The practices foregrounded in this exhibition, and the cultures and conditions of life, work and history that they emerge from, are situated within a broader experience of a resurgent ‘Global South’, within which peoples belonging to a diversity of cultures question received ideas of identity, culture and power.’

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Yilaalu showed at the MCA’s Primavera Curated by Nicole Foreshew, and at First Draft Gallery as part of Walan Yinaagirbang | Strong Women curated by Emily Mc Daniel.

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Images courtesy Nicole Foreshew, the Museum of Contemporary Art and First Draft Gallery.