SPEAK EASY SEPTEMBER 25 4A GALLERY CURATED BY AARON SEETO AND VERNON AH KEE
SPEAKEASY,
an exhibition co-curated by Vernon Ah Kee and Aaron Seeto looking at artists’ stories of Indigenous and Asian history. This is a key exhibition in Gallery 4A’s 2009 program.
I collaborating with site specific artist Mark Brown
Mark brown is a Sydney based sound / installation artist exploring notions relating to site, architecture and sonic atmospheres. Emerging in the early 90s, his work has evolved into a poetic response to site; critiquing history; function; the viewer and unseen and unheard phenomena within space.
Wave (Japanese Whispers) Collaborative installation by Jason Wing (1977, Chinese/Cantonese-Aboriginal/Biripi) In collaboration with sound artist Mark Brown
In Wave Jason Wing and Mark Brown recast a Torres Strait Island legend that originated during the Second World War. In 1942, Japanese bombers flew from aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea to Darwin undertaking a succession of bombing raids. Legend says that the Japanese did not bomb strategic allied installations in the nearby Torres Strait because a Japanese princess was buried in a cemetery on Thursday Island. The Torres Strait Islands was one of the few truly multi-cultural Australian regions, with Aborigines, Malay, Filipinos, Japanese Pearl divers, amongst others marrying, living and working together. Many Japanese and Filipinos had worked in the pearling industry since the late 1890s until the Second World War broke out, when the Japanese were forcibly interned in camps on mainland Australia. It would not be unreasonable to conclude that the Japanese presence was a significant factor behind the legend. In Wave Jason and Mark use a pallet of contrasting materials comprising coloured sand, amplified sound and a barcode image known as a QR code that links via a mobile phone directly to online content. The sand sculpture (QR Code) - represents the lofty view from the Japanese bombers looking down at the patchwork of Islands and functions as a technologically mediated method of storytelling and passing down traditional stories to a worldwide audience. The sand is coloured black and white representing the ‘yin yang’ relationship between the native Islanders and the Japanese pearl diver community there. The megaphone suspended above the ‘island’, painted in Japanese wartime livery projects the simulated sound of a formation of multi-engine bombers winging towards their target. Jason Wing, inspired by the dualism of his ancestry, provides a sympathetic understanding of the many cultures of Islander life, albeit fleetingly through the myth of a Japanese princess. Wing’s place at the nexus of Aboriginal and Chinese cultures has already produced exciting works, including the painting A.B.C. (Aboriginal Born Chinese) 2007 , and is fertile inspiration for future artistic explorations. This project also marks the first in what is hoped to be a continued collaboration between Wing and Sydney-based sound installation artist Mark Brown.
Written by Ruben Allas
SPEAKEASY
The "speakeasy"was an illegal, underground bar during the prohibition period (1920-1933) when the sale of alcohol and beverages was banned in the United States of America. Patrons had to speak "easy" in order to be served.
The title could also bring to mind the phrase "easily spoken". SPEAKEASY challenges us to think about the difficulties posed in attempting to articulate, speak, of relationship between Indigenous and Asian peoples.
Discussions in speakeasies did not occur on the surface, in the open. "Multicullturalism" as a political framework, engenders particular conversations in particular modes. Engaging in stories and storytelling, "speakeasy" will be a place for speculative narratives to unfold as a means to explore alternative, as-yet unearthed Australian histories. The pre-colonial history of contact and trade between Nothern Australian indigenous inhabitants and Mecassan Trepangers will be used to open up this conversation. In swapping stories, a discourse faithful to the relationships between Indigenous and Asian can be developed.
SPEAKEASY - 2009 The format of the exhibition will be developed as a group exhibition of the work of key indigenous artists. Their work will be presented as a series of particular story that charts or reveals something of these relationships.
The decision to build the exhibition as a series of stories is to circumvent and avoid a narrative of "first contacts". We envision that some of the stories which artists choose to work with and present, will not always present Asian and Indigenous relationships as simply cheerful – there is the possibility for discussions to arise which mark out tension and conflict.
SPEAKEASY as a project will continue to develop into the future, with the idea that the exhibition could turn into a touring exhibition with the possible inclusion of historic material and other artists as research unfolds, and for local content to be developed at each touring point.
