What Privilege - The Colony at the South Coast Regional Arts Centre during SALA 2019
Suspended in a surreal, timeless now, a Colony cargo unit has been dispatched to claim this space.
Welcome to The Colony Showroom: Winner takes all. Follow the arrows of progress offering comfort, convenience and MORE. Enjoy the kaleidoscope of culture, absurd technology, jingles, top colonizing tips and toys. Be dazzled by catchy supremacist rules, songs of denial, and promise of subliminal invasion. Marvel as the relentless machinery of The Colony hijacks our stories and values.
Resistance seems futile against the bureaucratic might and seduction of supremacy. Can we escape? What would it take to disrupt the colonizers? Where do they hide?
Over time a Ngarrindjeri live-art painting of resistance grows over the grey cargo, mapping out a different future. From a makeshift tent a Ngarrindjeri man demands Treaty: “Are you still listening? We need to come to terms with our shared history.”
Dare to stop us. The rules are rigged. How do we play a different game? How do we want to share our limited time on this planet?
Read the ‘Anthology in response to The Colony’ by poet and writer Mike Riddle here.
The Colony is an experimental, collaborative installation, including projections, sculptures, drawings, paintings, philosophical memes, satirical poetry and tactical art, developed, created and presented with a wide range of community partners and participating artists.
When: SALA 2019 - Aug 1 – Sep 1 2019
Artist floor talks at 1.30pm Sunday August 4th, Friday August 30th at 9.30am and Saturday August 31 at 11.30am. Opening August 4th at 2pm with Welcome to Country and cultural awareness talk by Ngarrindjeri Elder Clyde Rigney Snr.
What: 30 new works by 12 artists across 10 rooms
Ten hands-on workshops with Ngarrindjeri artist Cedric Varcoe responding to the concept of Colony and slowly transforming its grey cargo.
Three artist talks with lead artists and curators Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell.
Choose your side and pick your cards: Participatory tactical game art - join the Colony induction, follow the 10 Steps to Supremacy, negotiate the meme maelstrom of hundreds of helpful cartoons and animations and find your way home through the Colony showroom.
Watch Ngarrindjeri Shorts, our award-winning 8-part ABC iView series about Ngarrindjeri artists and culture.
More games to follow soon - stay tuned!
Works by Emilijia Kasumovic (left) and Jelena Voijnuvic (middle background), The Colony, 2019
A Change Media initiative
CURATED BY:
Jen Lyons-Reid
Carl Kuddell
ARTISTS:
Clyde Rigney Jnr
Cedric Varcoe
Damien Shen
Emilija Kasumovic
Jelena Vujnovic
Catherine Olsson
Nadia Vernari
Ngarrindjeri Media Team
Johanis Lyons-Reid
Felix Weber
Jen Lyons-Reid
Carl Kuddell
Background:
The Colony is a ‘What Privilege?’ work in progress, a cross-cultural exploration of power and privilege in arts and culture.
‘What Privilege?’ is a national Change Media initiative with a range of diverse community partners, to explore how we can creatively notice, disrupt and reframe colonizing mindsets and behaviours that maintain privilege and reinforce oppression.
‘Settlement’, Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Ferlix Weber, barbwire on metal, 2019
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the
Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and by the South Australian Government through Arts SA.
The Colony has been supported by the Alexandrina Council, the Regional City of Murray Bridge and Nexus Arts.