program

Jazz Money, still from we have stories for all the dark places, 2021 HD video, colour, sound 7 minutes

Agency x Composite First Nations Screening Program

    01 June - 08 July, 2022

    Composite

    Curated by
    • Agency

    Agency and Composite will partner to present an annual program of moving image works, showcasing the breadth and diversity of practice of contemporary First Nations visual artists.

    For the inaugural iteration of this program, the participating artists have been invited to contribute a work that addresses the latest concerns in their practice.

    Despite the diversity of locations and Countries on which the artists live and work, when watching the films alongside one another, a common theme emerges: the importance of preservation of culture and the environment.

    Agency is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led not-for-profit that celebrates and promotes Indigenous art, culture and people on a local, national and international scale. A catalyst for connection, engagement and impact, their public programs aim to amplify Indigenous storytelling, strengthen cultural maintenance and leadership, and sustain economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

    Amrita Hepi is a Bundjulung and Ngapuhi award-winning artist working with dance and choreography through video, the social function of performance spaces, installation and objects. Using hybridity and the extension of choreographic or performative practices, Hepi creates work that considers the body’s relationship to personal histories and the archive. Hepi is a Gertrude Contemporary studio artist in residence (2020 – 2022) and is currently working with Kaldor projects/Serpentine UK as a participating DOit artist.

    Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist currently based on Gadigal land. Her practice is centred around the written word while producing works that encompass installation, digital, film and print. Jazz’s writing has been widely performed and published nationally and internationally. Their David Unaipon Award-winning debut collection ‘how to make a basket’ was released in September 2021 by University of Queensland Press.

    Ishmael Marika is the Creative Director of The Mulka project where he began his film career in 2010. His installations and films have been exhibited and screened at major institutions and festivals around Australia including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Gallery of South Australia and Garma Festival. As well as a multi award-winning filmmaker, Ishmael is an accomplished artist and musician.

    Patrina Munuŋgurr is one of the leading cinematographers at The Mulka Project and is a competent film editor and post-production technician. Her initial work was largely documenting community events but quickly expanded as her skills and enthusiasm for cinematography developed and her eagerness for capturing Yolngu cultural knowledge grew. She came to predominance as a film maker after shooting and producing two ceremonial films Waṉḏawuy Dhapi and Biranybirany Dhapi out in the Yolngu homelands. These two films are still some of the most popular ceremonial movies amongst the Yolngu community.

    The Mulka Project is a collective of practicing multimedia artists, cinematographers, sound engineers and post-production technicians based in Yirrkala, North East Arnhem Land. The name Mulka means a sacred but public ceremony, and, to hold or protect. It is Mulka’s mission to sustain and protect Yolŋu cultural knowledge whilst being managed by Yolŋu law and governance. At the core of The Mulka Project resides a growing, living archive of Yolŋu knowledge, ceremony, and cultural history which gives voice to generations past and also allows contemporary Yolŋu knowledge and law to speak to coming generations and a worldwide audience.

    Related:

    2021

    We have stories for all the dark spaces inbetween,
    Jazz Money

    work

    We have stories for all the dark spaces inbetween considers the interrelation of data networks and Indigenous ways of knowing land and relation. The title comes comes from Aboriginal astronomy, where both the darkness and light of the night sky tell stories and inform our world. The expression invites us to consider networks of care, and how all things, not just the visible, need to be known and maintained to sustain us all.

    2014

    Galka,
    Ishmael Marika

    work

    In Arnhem Land, people believe that galka (dark heart person) is still living with us. You will find them in the bushes with painting on their body. Galka is the second film by Yolŋu film maker Ishmael Marika. It brings to the screen a character and a danger long since spoken of in Yolŋu culture, and heralds a warning to all who may find themselves in the presence of Galka.

    2017

    Dhumumu,
    Patrina Munuŋggurr

    work

    Master weaver and colour dyer Laŋani Marika, the most senior elder of the Rirratjiŋu clan, imparts her colour knowledge to the generations of tomorrow in these two videos extracted from an original 6 piece video installation by The Mulka Project of Northeast Arnhem Land. Created by two accomplished Yolŋu cinematographers, Patrina Munuŋgurr & Gayili Yunupiŋu, this exhibition weaves together Laŋani’s alchemy, art, and ethnobotany with vibrancy and colour. This collection of knowledge now permanently resides within The Mulka Project’s Yolŋu owned archives in Yirrkala but will be on display to the public for a short time over the Darwin International Film Festival at Darwin Visual Arts Association between the 15th and 24th September.

    2021

    The Anguilla Pursuit,
    Amrita Hepi

    work

    In this video, originally commissioned by the Sydney Opera House, Hepi uses the migratory route of the Anguilla Reinhardtii (the longfin eel), as an allegory for the performance of pursuit and return. Hepi personifies the Anguilla’s journey home through the Sydney Opera House and into the waters that surround it in a dynamic chase scene, as the eels travels over two-thousand kilometres from New Caledonia to the freshwaters of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Presented in two opposite screens are two interrelated images that speak and return to one another with edited loops and glitches. For centuries eels have held peoples’ imagination. The way in which they mate and reproduce has long been considered a mystery. Many are the theories and myths on how they come into being. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, believed they were a gift of the Nile that released them when warmed up by the sun. Aristotle instead claimed they emerged from a mix of rainwater and mud, while a Scottish tale from the 1860s reported they began their lives as beetles. Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson has discussed these stories in The Book of Eels (2020): eels were told to be born of sea-foam, created in spring when the sun rays touched the dew of lakeshores and riverbanks, or made out of hairs that had fallen into the water from horses’ tails. In her statement about the work the artist then explains: Return and transition hold a mythos around it as we grapple with our own endings, changes and chases. Seeing animals such as eels that show up in unexpected waters, yet still knowing how and when to migrate back, allows for dealing with the stories of my own migratory sensations, memories and loss. The interrogation and pursuit of the eel question is something that as an artist fascinates me. It makes me think of it as the ultimate metaphor for the “oceanic feeling” and the desire for a continued spirit of pursuit.

    2017

    Burukpili,
    Patrina Munuŋggurr

    work

    Master weaver and colour dyer Laŋani Marika, the most senior elder of the Rirratjiŋu clan, imparts her colour knowledge to the generations of tomorrow in these two videos extracted from an original 6 piece video installation by The Mulka Project of Northeast Arnhem Land. Created by two accomplished Yolŋu cinematographers, Patrina Munuŋgurr & Gayili Yunupiŋu, this exhibition weaves together Laŋani’s alchemy, art, and ethnobotany with vibrancy and colour. This collection of knowledge now permanently resides within The Mulka Project’s Yolŋu owned archives in Yirrkala but will be on display to the public for a short time over the Darwin International Film Festival at Darwin Visual Arts Association between the 15th and 24th September.

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