Women’s Wealth Interactive extends beyond Gallery walls

Women’s Wealth Interactive

Women’s Wealth Interactive / View full image

The ‘Women’s Wealth’ project focuses on what contemporary art can mean for women living in villages in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. Envisaged as a collective collaboration rather than a static installation, the project involves public engagement that extends beyond the walls of the gallery, including the Women’s Wealth website.

Women’s Wealth Interactive

Women’s Wealth Interactive / View full image

The website introduces audiences to the extensive development of the ‘Women’s Wealth’ workshop at the Nazareth Rehabilitation Centre in North Bougainville in September 2017 where the making began. Pursue the profiles of each individual artist and their geographical and cultural contexts which give their artworks specific meaning. Explore the project through the 3D interactive with a virtual experience of the exhibition.

Designed and created by Brisbane based Ortelia Interactive Services, the interactive has been developed from over 14,581 individual photographs which allows you to move 360 degrees around the sculptural works, zooming in to pick up the intricacy of the women’s stitching and panning back out to enjoy majestic sight lines through works. The 93 works out of 154 available as 3D images include stills from Taloi Havini’s immersive multichannel video Habitat 2018 and the full length of Women’s Wealth documentary by Jesmaine Gano and Georgianna Lepping. Quickly locate an artist and artwork details and expanded texts and secondary images documenting process and materials.

Women’s Wealth Interactive

Women’s Wealth Interactive / View full image

Women’s Wealth Interactive

Women’s Wealth Interactive / View full image

Women’s Wealth Interactive

Women’s Wealth Interactive / View full image

In addition to enabling access to audiences around the globe, both the interactive and the accompanying 3D photographic documentation of ‘Women’s Wealth’ for Google cardboard will return the project to the site of its inception in the remote villages of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. Armed with this virtual tool via mobile phone apps and local downloads, ‘Women’s Wealth’ artists will be able to share the experience of their work and its presentation within an international exhibition with family, clan and community leaders. This is of significant value to the ‘Women’s Wealth’ team.

In the context of Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, ideas of self are understood primarily via one’s relationships with others. Works of aesthetic expression created within this context are often an articulation of, and an act of service to this relational network. Many of the artists in ‘Women’s Wealth’ have worked with collectively owned forms, designs and knowledge which they would customarily only create for the benefit of family and clan. A number also worked collaboratively with other women to collect and prepare materials and make works.

While only a select few of these artists were able to travel to Brisbane to participate in the opening of APT9, the ‘Women’s Wealth’ team is excited that the website and its interactive acknowledges this larger network and enables the opportunity to experience the works presentation and to engage in conversations around the meaning of the works in this new context.

Ruth McDougall is Curator, Pacific Art, QAGOMA

Watch our Women’s Wealth documentary

Watch a Performance of Bougainville dance

Women from the Brisbane Bougainville Community Group Inc. perform a range of dances from across the Autonomous Region of Bougainville during APT9. The women are supported by Bougainville men creating the dynamic rhythmic sounds of the traditional bamboo band, but using PVC pipes and flip-flops.

Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes at exhibitions / Watch APT9 videos or Read about Asia Pacific artists

View Women’s Wealth at the Queensland Art Gallery until 14 July 2019 during ‘The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ APT9: Extended

Purchase the APT9 publication

Read more about ‘Women’s Wealth’ in The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art available online or in-store. The publication represents an important and lasting document of the current artistic landscape of Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

APT9 has been assisted by our Founding Supporter Queensland Government and Principal Partner the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Women’s Wealth has been supported by the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant program, DFAT and the Gordon Darling Foundation.

Feature image detail: Installation of the ‘Women’s Wealth’ project during APT9, Queensland Art Gallery

#APT9 #QAGOMA

Related Stories

  •
    Read •

    The beauty of Lola Greeno’s necklaces

    Despite the ravages of colonisation, Palawa people have made necklaces of lustrous strings of pearlescent shells collected from the cool waters surrounding Lutruwita (Tasmania) and its islands in a cultural practice extending back thousands of years. Though for most of us a shell necklace captivates with its beauty and mystique, for the makers it is a profoundly meaningful emblem of their integration with the land and with history Like many Palawa women, Lola Greeno first learnt to string shells in the classic style from her mother. Their creative partnership lasted for over 20 years, during which time Greeno mastered techniques and absorbed cultural wisdom and precise protocols around the making of shell necklaces. Growing up on Cape Barren and Flinders Islands in Bass Strait off the north-east coast of Tasmania, collecting shells was an intrinsic part of her childhood. It was later in life that her deep knowledge of the shells’ habitats — and of the tides and seasons when they could be found in abundance — enabled her to develop a rich repertoire of unique designs. Lola Greeno ‘Green maireener necklace’ 2007 Lola Greeno collecting maireener shells Reflecting the brilliant colours of the sea, multiple strands of each species included in the artist’s works in ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) emphasise the shells’ particular characteristics. The translucent green/blue of maireener shells, the icy tones of pointed silver kelp, the iridescence of abalones, and the patterned warrener, contrast with ten long strings of dense black crow shells, which act as a foil for the others’ brilliance. Lola Greeno ‘Winnya’ 2018 Perhaps the most spectacular is the aptly named king maireener (rainbow kelp shell), found amongst slippery jagged rocks, where leathery kelp fronds undulate beneath the water’s surface. Taking as long as a year to collect enough for one work, their rarity and preciousness is acknowledged by Greeno in Teunne (king maireener shell crown) 2013, a ‘crown’ of the large shells threaded on stainless-steel wire. Lola Greeno ‘Netepa menna’ 2018 In ancient Palawa tradition, shell necklaces, given as gifts to those arriving and departing, and as a mark of esteem, are often presented to important visitors. Over a two-year period, Greeno sourced 143 shells for a 2014 commission for Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art to honour performance artist Marina Abramovic. After meeting Abramovic, Greeno was satisfied that the intensity of the visiting artist’s personality matched the brilliance of the stunning neckpiece. The essential beauty of Greeno’s work lies in the natural materials she uses, enhanced by the artist’s selection, and in the centuries-old cleaning and polishing processes involved. Greeno’s intimate knowledge of shells and her inherent sense of design are evident in the harmonious pairings of luminous colours and perfect forms that require only minimal presentation to highlight their subtle elegance. Greeno’s shell necklaces speak to our essential need for stillness and simplicity — states of being implicit in the meditative process of threading shells — and maintain the artist’s connectedness with her island home. As a Palawa Elder, she ensures that their ethereal light shines through the generations, teaching others with great patience and dedication, and engaging the support of her family to continue ancient traditions. It is little surprise that Lola Greeno was the first Indigenous artist to be recognised as a ‘Living Treasure – Master of Australian Craft’ in 2014. Diane Moon is former Curator, Indigenous Fibre Art, QAGOMA Lola Greeno making her shell necklaces
  •
    Read •

    Some kind of island paradise

    Australia has roughly 8000 islands within its maritime borders. While many are sites of difficult histories, they also maintain their unique identities through song, stories, dance and visual art, often in environments characterised by isolation and significant external influences. Here is an overview of the Indigenous Australian artists and projects from Tasmania, Arnhem Land, the Torres Strait and the Pacific — who combine their geography and creative talents to honour their island heritage. Island life is often likened to living in ‘paradise’. Though this is rarely true, island life offers numerous Indigenous Australians opportunities for creativity and continuity. Of the 8000 islands within Australia’s maritime borders (both offshore and in mainland rivers), many are renowned for their Indigenous artists. Many Australian islands are sites of difficult histories. Due to their isolation, Indigenous Australians have, at times, unwillingly harboured misfits and mercenaries and had wrong-doers incarcerated in their midst. Similarly, their enclaves have been commandeered to enact cruel control over their own people. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders have also endured the exploitation of their rich marine resources. They have been forced to provide safe ports for trade ships, to engage in border and quarantine protection, and to perform governance and administrative roles for the mainland. Related: Beacons of hope Despite these incursions and ongoing restrictive government policies, many Indigenous island cultures maintain their unique identities, and enrich the spectrum of Australian life immeasurably through song, stories, dance, visual art, and a poetic and practical understanding of the natural world. Four of Australia’s largest islands include Bathurst and Melville in the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory, and Mornington and Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria. All are known for their art. Consciously engaging with the arts and creating celebratory occasions to memorialise their histories are acts that provide residents with social cohesion that nourishes and inspires, and also opens pathways to the wider world. Lutruwita (Tasmania) in the south is, of course, Australia’s largest isle. Tayaritji (Furneaux Group) to the north-east of Lutruwita is made up of remnants of an ice age land bridge that connected to the southern tip of Victoria. Growing up in Tayaritji on Cape Barren and Flinders Islands, Palawa woman Lola Greeno enjoyed a rich community life surrounded by the cool, clear waters of Bass Strait, where she learnt the ways of collecting and preparing shell species to make exquisite necklaces, as practised by generations of her ancestors. In her twenties, Greeno moved to mainland Launceston with her family and studied the ancient art further with her mother. Together, these women played an important role in an intergenerational movement responsible for a vibrant reworking of shell necklace making. The opalescent beauty of the necklaces commands world attention, and Palawa artists continue in the spirit of ‘waranta takara milaythina nara takara’ (‘we walk where they once walked’), ever mindful of honouring their ancestral heritage. Disturbingly, though, the formerly pristine marine domain of the artist’s home is altering, making even the most common shells difficult to source. Changing weather patterns and climatic disturbances are causing radical environmental damage to the shell beds on the ocean floor. Even one degree of the water warming can kill kelp forests and marine flora. On Tasmania’s east coast in early 2018, Greeno and her family were shocked to find tonnes of sand, dumped by freak wave action, burying the penguin shells they were to collect. Sadly, too, the magnificent king maireener shells, once plentiful, are now rarely found. Stay Connected: Subscribe to the QAGOMA Blog In the far north of Australia, Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy have spent most of their lives on their tiny island home of Langarra in the Arafura Sea. The sisters now live on nearby Milingimbi (Yurrwi), the largest of the Crocodile Islands. Milingimbi’s richly layered histories are marked by remnants of its bombing by the Japanese during World War Two, and subsequent occupation by the Royal Australian Air Force. In addition, groves of ancient tamarind trees remain after hundreds of years of seasonal occupation by the Macassans from south Sulawesi, who came in their large wooden perahu to collect and process trepang (sea cucumber) for sale to the Chinese. Macassan history is celebrated on Milingimbi in colourful ceremonies, songs and dances that recall their knives, swords, pottery, textiles, palm-flower wine and sailing vessels, as well as the trade winds that enabled their journey to and from Marege (Australia). Intermarrying and sharing language cemented their connection, with over 1000 ‘loan’ words now incorporated into the Yolngu languages. In pre-Macassan times, only rock, clay and charcoal pigments were used to colour weaving fibres; however, the cooking pots they introduced were used by Yolngu to boil plant materials, producing a larger range of colours. In a process they hold secret, Rarru and Ganalmirriwuy (both master weavers) experimented with local leaves to find the rich black dye that now distinguishes their remarkable works. Always open to new influences, pop icon Madonna — whose music rang out from boom boxes and discos in north-east Arnhem Land in the 1980s — and her corset like costumes inspired Rarru to make her ‘Madonna bras’: simply two small conical baskets bound together with a woven string harness. These days, the music is more likely to be by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (1971–2017), the revered Australian musician who grew up on nearby Galiwin’ku (Elcho Island). Erub (Darnley Island) is the furthest Australian territory to the north-east. In 1871, English and Kanak missionaries sailed across the Coral Sea from Lifou in the Pacific’s Loyalty Islands to introduce Christianity. The faith spread from Erub throughout the Torres Strait, and elaborate annual ceremonies mark the ‘Coming of the Light’, a melding of Christian and customary beliefs in contemporary island life. Many of the Lifou missionaries stayed on Erub and lost contact with their families; however, an emotional reunion in 2011 between distant relatives sparked new connections. The resulting project explores bloodlines, heritage and spiritual connections with the land...
Loading...