Featuring a selection of works from the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, Maluw Adhil Urngu Padanu Mamuy Moesik (Legends from the deep sitting peacefully on the waters), presented by Institute of Modern Art (IMA), uses art to expose climate change, posing questions and answers to the threat.
Yessie Mosby, Maluw Adhil Urngu Padanu Mamuy Moesik (Legends from the deep, sitting peacefully upon the waters) (detail), 2022; Torres Strait 8, Poster wall (detail), 2022. Posters by Mooki Pen, Dylan Mooney, Guy Ritani, BlakSeed, Waniki Maluwapi, and Jaelyn Biumaiwai. Installation view, 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, 2022, Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. Photograph: Document Photography. Courtesy the artists, Biennale of Sydney and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
The exhibition centres on the narratives of Torres Strait 8, a collective on the frontlines of advocacy for the climate crisis in Zenadh Kes (the Torres Strait Islands and surrounding seas). As IMA shares, “the hybrid art-as-protest work features four totems carved from driftwood found on Masig (Yorke island) by Kulkalgal Traditional Owner and member of the collective, Yessie Mosby. These totems share stories of ancestral beings in deep saltwater and are accompanied by campaign posters designed by Dylan Mooney (Yuwi, Meriam, and South Sea Islander) and Jaelyn Biumaiwai (Fijian/First Nations) for the Our Islands Our Home campaign run by 350.org.”
Alongside this installation, the exhibition presents eight contemporary Australian and international artists (Zheng Bo, Casino Wake Up Time, Jessie French, Clare Milledge, Marjetica Potrč with Ray Woods, Duke Riley, the Torres Strait 8, and Hanna Tuulikki), each who explore the murky depths of climate change and the urgency that prevails.
Fundamentally, Maluw Adhil Urngu Padanu Mamuy Moesik (Legends from the deep sitting peacefully on the waters) exposes a methodology that unpacks relationships with nature. How they could be reframed or reimagined to prioritise care for Country, and pursue justice in an epoch of rising temperatures and seas.
Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia 1 (video still), 2016, digital video, colour, sound, 00.17 mins. Originally supported by TheCube Project Space, Villa Vassilieff, and Pernod Ricard Fellowship. Courtesy the artist, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, Biennale of Sydney and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
“The artists in this exhibition introduce us to a number of stories from across the globe, as diverse as the waterways that spawned them,”
says IMA Assistant Director and Exhibition Curator, Tulleah Pearce.
“What exists between these works is a shared understanding of place or environment as a container for deep knowledge, as well as a call to listen to this wisdom to preserve these spaces and the communities they support. Many of these works advocate for the inherent rights of nature, and assert that acknowledging this sovereignty is the only way forward in the climate crisis to avoid catastrophic destruction of lands and cultures.”
Institute of Modern Art
28 January to 29 April 2023
Queensland
