TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili

TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili, curated by Dr Léuli Eshrāghi.

The TarraWarra Biennial, showing 1 April–16 July 2023, featured newly commissioned works by 15 artists/artist groups focused on the interconnectedness of the peoples of Australia, Asia and the Great Ocean.

We gather on Wurundjeri Country to immerse ourselves in cultural renaissances of the Majority World, connecting through fresh and salt waters to many parts of this planet. The title of the TarraWarra Biennial 2023, ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili, is an alagāʻupu, Sāmoan proverb, meaning ‘the canoe obeys the wind’. This saying calls attention to the contemporary revival of Great Ocean celestial navigation practices, which has been accompanied by waves of renewal of language, thought, movement and relationships. In this spirit, this exhibition affirms the principle of humility towards living beings and storied places, which in turn generates neighbourly exchanges and joyful futures.

TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili gathered new commissions by artists, poets, makers, performers, archivists, scholars, weavers, painters, carvers, and filmmakers who live and work across Australia. In the works held first within these walls as well as in their wider œuvre, the commissioned artists maintain and strengthen indelible relationships and responsibilities to creation laws, ancestral estates, matrilineal practices, and material experimentation. This takes place within a wider context of transnational contestation, desperately needing sustained intersectional critique (Kimberlé Crenshaw) grounded in a Moana cosmopolitan imaginary (Lana Lopesi) that centres Indigenous sovereignties.

Most exhibitions framing the relationships between Australian society and surrounding archipelagos in south/southeast Asia and the south/southwest Great Ocean have focussed on continuing to sample and dabble in intercultural understanding. By any calendar measure, it is time for complex conversations to take place, so that the sublime aesthetic and intellectual practices born of these contexts may be deeply felt and understood.

The artists participating in TarraWarra Biennial 2023 are:
Regina Pilawuk Wilson (Ngan’gikurunggurr, Marrithyel); Vicki West (trawlwoolway); Sonja Carmichael (Quandamooka) and Elisa Jane Carmichael (Quandamooka); The Unbound Collective: Ali Gumillya Baker (Mirning), Faye Rosas Blanch (Mbararam, Yidinyji), Natalie Harkin (Narungga), Simone Ulalka Tur (Yankunytjatjara); Jenna Lee (Gulumerridjin, Wardaman, KarraJarri); Abdul-Rahman Abdullah; Hoda Afshar; Elyas Alavi; Torika Bolatagici; Dr Kirsten Lyttle (Tainui Waikato); Phuong Ngo; Bhenji Ra; David Sequeira; Sancintya Mohini Simpson; and Dr Leyla Stevens.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body; and supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus1; and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.