THE COMMUTE
INSTITUTE of modern Art, Brisbane, September 22 - december 22, 2018
Artists: Chantal Fraser (Samoa), Carol McGregor (Wadawurrung, Scottish), Lisa Hilli (Gunantuna), Hannah Brontë (Yaegl), Cease Wyss (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō, Irish, Métis, Hawai‘i, Swiss), Allan Haeweng (Drehu), Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv, Klahoose), Natalie M Ball (Modoc, Klamath), and Ahilapalapa Rands (Kanaka Maoli, iTaukei Viti, Pākehā)
The Commute is a collaborative project led by Indigenous curators Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash, Chicana), Freja Carmichael (Quandamooka), Léuli Lunaʻi Eshraghi (Sāmoa), Tarah Hogue (Métis, Dutch), and Lana Lopesi (Samoa). The collective has been invited to develop this project as Visiting Curators at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in Brisbane, Australia.
Commuting between centres and edges, between cities and countrysides, and between worlds is increasingly normal— necessary even. A commute or regular journey of some distance to and from one’s workplace is something many of us engage in on a daily basis. A commute as a multidirectional trip not only takes one to work but also leads one home and to places of learning and social/political connection. If we take this as fact, then we understand commuting as comprising two key factors, place and travel.
Through networks of migration, trade, and exchange engendered in both deep time and every day, place and travel become integral to contemporary Indigenous experience. Perhaps we can understand migration, trade, and exchange as forms of commuting, and understand ourselves as commuting cultures. So, then commuting also requires vigilance of the forces driving our understanding of place and movement, such as displacement, diaspora, and ecological devastation across various territories.
Drawing from the experiences of commuting cultures, the IMA Visiting Curators present The Commute. This exhibition encompasses a series of commissioned projects by artists located around the Great Ocean, also known as the Pacific Rim, who assert complex, wide-ranging, contemporary Indigenous experiences inclusive of both ancestral knowledges and global connections. On a basic level, commuting describes the way in which the international group of Indigenous Visiting Curators are working with the IMA, the exhibiting artists and pockets of the local community. But in a greater sense, it also encapsulates the mobile yet located nature of being Indigenous today. Rather than attempting to package such diverse experiences neatly within a conceptual framework, The Commute explores the mess, the entanglements and the disparities of contemporary Indigenous experiences.
The Commute is supported by the IMA and has received assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts, Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Creative New Zealand, Canada Council for the Arts, Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, and Queensland Government through Arts Queensland in partnership with Brisbane City Council.
PRESS
Soo-Min Shim, “The Commute,” Art Almanac, October 29, 2018
Megan Cope, “The Commute,” Un Projects, October 30, 2018
Michaela Bear, “The Commute,” ArtAsiaPacific, November 2018
PROGRAMS
Meet ‘The Commute’
March 25, 2018, Institute of Modern Art
Join us for an afternoon where the distinctive perspectives of the visiting curators will be shared and discussions about the formation of the project will take place.
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/instituteofmodernart/the-comute
Loops and knots: a festival of weaving across waters
December 1, 2018, Institute of Modern Art
Loops and knots: a festival of weaving across waters brings together artists from saltwater and freshwater countries, and across the Great Ocean to celebrate and share in the cultural importance of weaving.
Throughout the afternoon hear from artists working with fibre in a series of talks, take part in hands-on demonstrations, see a showcase of weaving works, and enjoy live entertainment in the IMA Courtyard.
Learn about artist’s fibre backgrounds and their ongoing work in regenerating traditional practices and community collaborations to create strong weaving futures. Hear from Kylie Caldwell (Bundjalung), Sonja Carmichael (Quandamooka), Ranu James (Papua New Guinea), and members of Māori Contemporary Artist Collective Whatu Manawa—Tania Hapai Heta, Mihimai Nikora & Leona Morete. See works on display made by participants of our recent Loops and Knots: Weaving Workshops, a series of free weaving workshops for young people, led by artists from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Pacific cultural backgrounds.
