Murrundi at ACE + Biennale of Sydney

Change Media has been commissioned by ACE to collaborate with Ngarrrindjeri artist Clyde Rigney Jnr to create a video installation for ACE’s ‘A river that flows both ways’ exhibition in conjunction with Biennale of Sydney 2023.

Inspired by rivers that flow both ways, ACE has partnered with the Biennale of Sydney to present a local response to the 23rd Biennale, titled rīvus (Latin for “stream”). Dedicated to nature and water-based ecologies, rīvus tackles many timely environmental themes including pollution, climate change, and the effect of colonisation on First Peoples’ custodianship of ecosystems.

Exhibition: Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, Adelaide CBD, February 4 2023 to March 18 2023. Also see their website here: https://www.ace.gallery/watch-read-listen/river-voice-murrundi-murray-river

‘A river that flows both ways’ exhibition 2023. Photo by Graham Hancock. Courtesy of Adelaide Contemporary Experimental

Excerpt from the poetry performance:

“Our waters are not healthy.

Introduced management systems continue to severely damage Murrundi and the Kurangk.

The impacts are affecting our rights as Ngarrindjeri to remain Ngarrindjeri.

Everything is connected: If our rivers die, we die.

The River Murray is a colonial delusion, it is Murrundi who sustains us.

We urgently need to come to terms with Murrundi, with each other, for future generations to be healthy.”

Credits:

Performed by Clyde Rigney Jnr, Tangane/Yaralde Ngarrindjeri, from Murrundi and Kurangk, South Australia

Co-written + co-directed by Clyde Rigney Jnr, Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell

Produced by Carl Kuddell and Jen Lyons-Reid

Recorded and edited by Change Media

Supported through the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and the South Australian Government through Arts SA.

A river that flows both ways: Selected works from the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus is presented by the Biennale of Sydney and Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, with generous support from  the  Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.  

The River Voices project was originally commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australian Film Television and Radio School for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022), titled rīvus. 

The Colony - Murray Bridge Regional Gallery

The Colony - Who Comes to Visit? Exhibition, June 2018: Murray Bridge, SA.

This work-in-progress with Ngarrindjeri explores assimilation, treaty and bureaucracy as the logistics of empire.

What is your experience of whiteness and identity in the context of Treaty and colonization? How do we want to share our limited time on this planet? How do we come to terms?

The Colony is a dynamic, experimental installation, combining projection work, sculpture, line art and poetic audio-visual provocations. Opening Sunday June 17 at 2.30pm, with a Welcome to Country by Ngarrindjeri Elder Rose Rigney (find her speech below), speeches by the lead artists and drinks and nibbles. The installation will be shown from June 15 to July 22 2018.

Click here for useful links and background info about Treaty, Uluru Statement, Letters Patent and Native Title.

This cross-cultural collaboration was created by Jen Lyons-Reid [concept, line art, text], Carl Kuddell [concept, sculpture, text], Ngarrindjeri man Clyde Rigney Jnr [concept, text, audio], Felix Weber [sculptures, installation] and Johanis Lyons-Reid [video].

Wo is coming to visit? The Collector

Welcome to the Colony

When you enter the Colony, who comes to visit? Navigate a bivouac of menacing, invasive colonies and colonial beliefs, to experience how Ngarrindjeri continue to maintain and share their cultural values in the tension between assimilation and treaty. “Nukkan Nganawi Ngarrindjeri Kringkari Ngoppen? Can you see my walk in your white world?”

Suspended in a surreal, timeless now, tinged with past, present and future colonial ventures, an array of cargo crates form a mobile bureaucratic envoy, dispatched to colonize this space.

HQ spews data, assessing and assimilating Ngarrindjeri values and dictating the terms of ‘settlement’. From its crates spill the colonizers cargo, flotsam, tools and toys, casting menacing shadows of invasion. Absurd technology prints and projects evaluation protocols and Colonizer roles, rendered as friendly, garish cartoons. A never-ending negotiation emanates from a makeshift tent. “Are you still here? Are you listening? Do I scare you? I am assimilated, I speak fluent Grey. We need to come to terms.”

Navigating this bivouac, audiences are invited to decipher the impact of colonial beliefs: What does assimilation mean to you? Which of the colonizers do you know? What is your experience of treaty and colonization? Who do you see when you look into the mirror? How do we want to share our limited time on this planet? How do we come to terms?

When you exit back into the colony through the Welcome gate, please take some information from the Community Notice Board. 

Who is coming to visit? The Critic

What Privilege - The Colony [stage 1] - exhibition is one of the 2017-18 outcomes of our cross-cultural collaboration during Creating Together - what can possibly go wrong?, alongside What Privilege - Unity of Oppression show at Nexus Arts, Adelaide.

What Privilege- The Colony [stage 2] - exhibition and games, 2018-19: We plan to create an interactive game world, run by a colonial bureaucracy, ‘Grey Matters Inc’, with a diverse range of artists, partners and communities. This intersectional project and participatory game will explore concepts of intersectionality, insurrection and solidarity. and Goolwa South Coast Arts Centre in August 2019 during SALA Festival.

What Privilege - this breath is not mine to keep [stage 3] - arts trail, 2019-21: In the third stage we will present the work to regional arts venues, festivals and other events, further develop interactive and mobile elements of the work and tour the game, performance and exhibition nationally.

View fullsize

Ngarrindjeri Elder Rose Rigney's Welcome to Country speech for The Colony

Floor sheet info clockwise from Gallery entrance:

Entrance: ‘Community Notice Board’ - Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, lamp-post ads featuring What Privilege’s 50 colonizers and their 10 gangs, mixed media, 2018

Left-hand wall 1: ‘Can you see me?’ - Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Clyde Rigney Jnr, sculpture, Ngarrindjeri archival images of Clyde's ancestors Grace and Daniel Gollan, mirror-glass, metal, LED, mixed media, 3x 55cm x 45cm, 2018

Centre: ‘The Colony Cargo’ - Felix Weber, Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Clyde Rigney Jnr, sculpture, 5x 90cm x 90cm x 180cm, mixed media, 2018

‘You didn’t see me coming’ - Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Clyde Rigney Jnr, mixed media, digital photo-frame, 2018

‘Mission protocol’ - Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Felix Weber, Clyde Rigney Jnr, kinetic sculpture, wooden printer with endless canvas loop, mixed media, 2018

Left-hand wall 2: ‘This is not a toy’ – Felix Weber, Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, sculpture + shadow projection, wood, torch, 2018

Back wall: ‘Surveillance / Protection’ - Johanis Lyons-Reid, Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Clyde Rigney Jnr, video projection, featuring videos created in collaboration with Ngarrindjeri, 2018

Right-hand wall: ‘Three Cheers for Civilization’ - Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, dual channel video projection, line art, poetry, 2018

Right-hand wall/ entry wall right corner: ‘We meet again (are you still listening?)’ - Clyde Rigney Jnr, Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Felix Weber, sculpture, metal/ canvas tent, audio-video projection, 1.7mx 2.5m, 2018

Entry/ Exit wall: ‘Story Theft’ – Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Clyde Rigney Jnr, video projection, Ngarrindjeri values, line art, poetry, 2018

Exit: ‘Welcome to the Colony’ – Felix Weber, Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, sculpture, 4.5mx 3m, wood, mixed media, LED-neon, 2018

Credits:

Artistic concept / co-curators: Clyde Rigney Jnr, Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell

Sculptures and installations: Felix Weber, Carl Kuddell, Jen Lyons-Reid

Video / FX: Johanis Lyons-Reid

Cartoons and line art: Jen Lyons-Reid

Poetry/ text: Jen Lyons-Reid, Carl Kuddell, Clyde Rigney Jnr

Spoken word performance: Clyde Rigney Jnr

Editing (slide projections and audio): Jen Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell

Seamstress extraordinaire: Jemima Thompson

Printing: PrintsAlive (Thanks Warren and Trevor)

Bump-in support: Melinda Rankin and her lovely team, Det, Don, Trevor and all the other volunteers and tech support at the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and city council

Welcome to Country: Ngarrindjeri Elder Rose Rigney

Photo and video documentation: Johanis Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell

Ngarrindjeri Catering: Little Catering Co

And a big shout out to all our community participants, funders and supporters.

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 project has been supported by the Regional Gallery Murray Bridge.