Dusk of Nations features selected works by leading Australian-based artists drawn primarily from the UQ Collection – Cigdem Aydemir, Brook Andrew, Fiona Foley, Jack Green, Kathleen France Inkamala, Vanessa Inkamala, Rosemary Laing, Archie Moore, Sally M Nangala Mulda, Raquel Ormella, Gloria Napurrurla Pannka, Kenny Pittock, Luke Roberts, Arthur Streeton, and Keemon Williams.
Spanning painting, photography, sculptural objects and moving image, these artists explore ideas of national identity and nationhood, and how these concepts are defended and maintained, resisted and subverted. Critical hinges of ‘Australian’ national mythology, including the outback, the national flag, a day at the beach, and a mass-produced snack food are invoked in ways that problematise the authority of their ‘sunny’ connotations. Exhibited artworks bring this symbolism into conversation with the messy complexity and physical reality of ongoing colonialism, and the nation’s imbrication within global histories of migration, exploitation and extractive capitalism.
Sally M Nangala Mulda, Policeman Taking Man to Big Jail, 2019, acrylic on linen. Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2019. Photograph: Carl Warner. Courtesy the artist, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Turrbal Country/Brisbane and UQ Art Museum
UQ Art Museum
16 July to 14 December 2024
Queensland
