Commemorating the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and South Korea, 경로를 재탐색합니다 UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA amplifies artistic practice representing contemporary issues vital to Australia and invites audiences to examine privilege, dominance and power from several perspectives. The project unpacks the complexities of national histories and the present moment through self-presentation and multiple forms of knowledge and resistance that challenge the standard representations of Australia.
경로를 재탐색합니다 UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA features works by Abdul Abdullah, Brook Garru Andrew, Club Ate, Richard Bell, Daniel Boyd, Johnathon World Peace Bush, Madison Bycroft, Timothy Cook, Megan Cope, Robert Fielding, Zaachariaha Fielding, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Matthew Griffin, Taloi Havini, Timo Hogan, IVI (lead artists Ruha Fifita, Minaira Fifita, Sheida Vazirzadeh), Iwantja Women’s Collaborative, Iwantja Men’s Collaborative, Soda Jerk, Helen Johnson, Alex Martinis Roe, Carol McGregor, Archie Moore, Kunmanara (Peter) Mungkuri, Mrs Norris, Vincent Namatjira, Mel O’Callaghan, Lawrence Pennington, Yhonnie Scarce, Leyla Stevens, Lennard Walker, Judy Watson, Ms Wirrpanda, Pedro Wonaeamirri and Ms Yunupiŋu.
Artwork description
Archie Moore turns to issues of authenticity, nationhood, and the fragmentation of identity wrought by colonisation. United Neytions presents a grand display of 14 ‘false’ flags tied to imagined Australian Aboriginal nations. These ‘nations’ were constructed by R H Mathews, an early nineteenth-century surveyor and self-taught anthropologist, who in 1900 published a map depicting incorrect boundaries for Indigenous language groups across Australia. These imposed borders, woefully detached from Indigenous peoples’ own cultural identities and connections to place, are the incitement for Moore’s playful invention of objects that only masquerade as flags. Tethered to a misrepresentation, their status as flags is riddled with contradiction and ambiguity. In keeping with the conventions of flag design, Moore’s flags contain signifiers of group identities but remain impossible. Ultimately though, they powerfully refute this early colonial attempt to carve up the nation.