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Moorina Bonini\u2019s, dapalama (between), 2023. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of really being quite critical of the space itself\u201d. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Zan\u00a0Wimberley<\/cite><\/p>\n Other Primavera alumni who have gone on to achieve national and international prominence include Mikala Dwyer (1992), Nell (1999), Jonathan Jones (2003), Soda Jerk (2008), Paul Yore (2014), Hoda Afshar (2019) and Marco Fusinato (1998), who last year represented Australia at the Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s crop of young talent features work by Moorina Bonini, Christopher Bassi, Tiyan Baker, Nikki Lam, Sarah Poulgrain and Truc Truong, guest curated by Granville Centre Art Gallery\u2019s Talia Smith.<\/p>\n Smith says Primavera has a restless energy that distinguishes it from the MCA\u2019s usual offerings of international solo exhibitions and summer blockbusters.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was invited to curate Primavera, that\u2019s how I saw it fitting into \u2013 or not fitting in, really \u2013 to the structure of the gallery,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Smith has been thinking about how systems such as colonialism, religion, law and housing continue to fail many people, especially since the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to create a show that brought together people that are looking at alternative ways or even collectivising in a way to create or reimagine what these structures could look like. How to live, basically, in among all the chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Smith acknowledges this isn\u2019t a new thing.<\/p>\n \u201cArtists have been protesting and persevering and reimagining for so long,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Yorta Yorta, Wurundjeri, Wiradjuri and Italian artist Bonini is deeply familiar with protest.<\/p>\n Sarah Poulgrain with Learning how to build a houseboat: walls, fixings and rope, 2023.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Zan Wimberley<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI come from a really strong, matrilineal line of incredibly staunch Aboriginal women that have a long history in protest and resistance in Victoria,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Bonini makes works about the intersection of Western ideas of art and Indigenous knowledge systems.<\/p>\n Her work for Primavera, In dapalama (between) <\/i>(2023), is a series of texts and charcoal marks across the gallery space.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an Aboriginal context, we use our marks to identify,\u201d she says. \u201cWe marked our shields and coolamons and those marks are usually indicative of places of country and of stories.<\/p>\n \u201cThese excerpts of my \u2018mulana\u2019 writing \u2013 mulana means \u2018spirit\u2019 in Yorta Yorta \u2013 I see them as a place mark or a mark itself,\u201d she says. \u201cThe way that I\u2019ve reinstated or reinscribed these marks through my writing, it\u2019s a way of really being quite critical of the space itself, interrogating and acknowledging the tension that exists between myself and my bawu [body] and the Western institutions in which I exist and work.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an interrogation of the structure, but it\u2019s also an interrogation of each and everyone\u2019s own position within the institution, thinking about our own values, our own privileges, our own cultural understandings of what this means. It\u2019s a quiet work but it involves everybody. It comes from me, but everyone\u2019s implicated in this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Brisbane-based artist Sarah Poulgrain is particularly interested in ideas of self-sustainability.<\/p>\n \u201cMy practice aims to facilitate a model of knowledge-sharing that disrupts power dynamics and prioritises vulnerability and trust,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n What this means practically is learning new skills \u2013 everything from aluminium casting to welding and hat-making \u2013 and then teaching those skills to others.<\/p>\n \u201cI find making functional things for myself helps with feeling powerful and in control of my life,\u201d she says. \u201cThough I produce sculptures, my practice is primarily concerned with building and sustaining respectful and non-hierarchical relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n Her work for Primavera, Learning how to build a houseboat: walls, fixing and rope <\/i>(2023), was made in collaboration with fellow Brisbane artists and came out of newfound skills developed through building a pontoon houseboat that will operate as a collective art space and living space.<\/p>\n While she has made several iterations of her series A set of new skills <\/i>, the recent floods and climate crises, as well as the cost of living and housing crises, have brought a fresh urgency to this latest project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe aim of the project is to create a climate and gentrification-resilient ARI [artist-run initiative] for Meanjin [Brisbane] experimental art, untying the contingency of art spaces on real estate rental markets,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cSydney Harbour and the MCA is a very wealthy and culturally prestigious location, it\u2019s definitely the fanciest place I have exhibited \u2026 While the framework of Primavera certainly gives cultural activity an aura of authority and sophistication, I hope it can also be a framework that allows the work to be accessible and un-intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Other rising stars at Primavera<\/h3>\n
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Islander heritage and history. His series of works, Monuments to the South\/West Waters of a Great Ocean (2023),<\/em> elevates the humble shell to comment on the legacies of colonialism and the role of fishing and pearling in the Arafura Sea.<\/li>\nMost Viewed in Culture<\/h2>\n
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