Wansolwara: One Salt Water
- When 17 Jan - 18 Apr 2020
- Where
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Address
CNR OXFORD ST & GREENS RD, PADDINGTON NSW 2021
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Hours
TUES TO SAT, 10AM-5PM
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Phone
+61 2 8936 0888
Presented in partnership with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and in association with Sydney Festival
'Wansolwara: One Salt Water' is a series of exhibitions, performances and events from across the Pacific and throughout the Great Ocean. Wansolwara — a pidgin word from the Solomon Islands meaning ‘one-salt-water’ or ‘one ocean, one people’ — reflects not a single ocean, but rather a connected waterscape that holds distinct and diverse cultures and communities. Through art, performance and conversation, the project celebrates the depth and diversity of contemporary visual and material culture throughout these regions, placing customary practices alongside contemporary articulations in art, writing and the moving image.
Unfolding across multiple sites over the summer of 2020, 'Wansolwara: One Salt Water' profiles the creativity of the region through multidisciplinary forms. Artists Terry Faleono, Ruha Fifita, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Shivanjani Lal, Paula Schaafhausen and Vaimaila Urale all present significant bodies of work that trace connections to the Pacific through language, tradition, dance and ceremony.
Artist and curator Léuli Eshrāghi also presents the major exhibition ‘O le ūa na fua mai Manuʻa’. This focus within the project expands the Pacific from a geographical region to consider networks and exchange facilitated by the Great Ocean. The exhibition brings fresh international perspectives to current endeavours to embody and awaken Indigenous sensual and spoken languages in works that focus on language, the body, gender, sex, desire and pleasure. It features works by asinnajaq, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Sebastián Calfuqueo Aliste, Mariquita Davis, Amrita Hepi, Caroline Monnet, Faye Mullen, Shannon Te Ao, Angela Tiatia and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu. Sydney-based collective, Troppo Galaktika, will also curate the third iteration of ‘Club 4A’ focused on the continuing and contemporary cultures of the Pacific.
Exhibitions
ʻO le ūa na fua mai Manuʻa
17 January – 18 April 2020 | Oxford Gallery
OFO HAKE: Koe Ngatu Teuteu 'o 'Akesa mo 'Isileli Fifita
17 January – 18 April 2020 | Nick Waterlow Gallery
Shivanjani Lal: Beta, ek story bathao
17 January – 14 March 2020 | Courtyard Gallery
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
17 January – 29 March 2020
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is a leading organisation dedicated to Asian-Australian contemporary art. For ‘Wansolwara’ 4A presents works by Terry Faleono, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Paula Schaafhausen and Vaimaila Urale. 4A is located on Hay Street, between Pitt and George Street, Sydney. For more information and opening hours visit www.4a.com.au
Public Programs
Wansolwara Symposium
10.30am Saturday 18 January 2020 | Free, registration required
This one-day symposium draws together diverse perspectives on the Great Ocean as a connector to culture, ancestral traditions and the movement of people. Join artists and guest speakers as they discuss issues connecting communities and cultures, including displacement and labour, cultural activism in the face of colonisation and the creation of new cultural phenomena.
Shivanjani Lal: In Conversation
6pm Thursday 23 January 2020 | Free
Exhibiting artist Shivanjani Lal discusses experiences of diaspora, the importance of language, and how the significance of culture shapes creative practice with poet Manisha Anjali.
Club 4A: Troppo Galaktika
5pm Saturday 25 January 2020 | Ticketed
Sydney-based collective Troppo Galaktika presents an evening of food, parade and live performance, that weaves from 4A to a karaoke club in Haymarket. Tickets available at www.sydneyfestival.org.au
In Conversation: Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Angela Tiatia & Dr Léuli Eshrāghi
3pm Saturday 15 February 2020 | Free
Exhibiting artists Sarah Biscarra Dilley and Angela Tiatia are joined by curator Dr Léuli Eshrāghi to share international perspectives on urgent issues of our time, particularly as they affect Indigenous peoples across the Great Ocean and its shores.
Art Month: Paddington & Woollahra Precinct Night
6pm Friday 6 March 2020 | Free
Curated by Athena Thebus, the Art Month opening party for the Paddington and Woollahra precinct will feature DJ sets, performances and projections from DJ Kilimi and Flower Boy 卓颖贤, Stelly G, Chloe Corkran, Sione Monu, JD Reforma and Jen Atherton.
Ngatu Learning Space
1pm Saturday 4 April 2020 | Ticketed
Members of the Fifita family, in partnership with IVI designs, offer an open and interactive learning space where participants can gather to learn from each other through the creation of smaller works on bark cloth.
Wansolwara Writers Program
Alongside the exhibition, a series of academic modes of enquiry elucidate key themes of the project. Australian based early-career writers Mitiana Arbon, Winnie Dunn, Enoch Mailangi and Talia Smith, have been commissioned to participate in the ‘Wansolwara Writers Program’.
Their critical responses to the exhibition are shared in a special edition of 4A’s biannual online journal 4A Papers, and a roundtable discussion is published in Issue 324 of Art Monthly Australasia.
The Wansolwara Writers Program is presented in partnership with FBi Radio and Art Monthly Australasia.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
If you have questions regarding access to exhibitions or programs, please call on 02 8936 0888 or email unswgalleries@unsw.edu.au