Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art
In bringing together 19 artists and collectives with ties to Queensland, this exhibition reveals common threads and interests from early-career and established artists working across a diversity of media. Ultimately, their vigour of expression is what draws their unique practices into this contemporary survey.
Many artworks look at how specific bodies of knowledge are expressed and use the gallery as a vehicle to give lesser-known histories greater prominence. Vanghoua Anthony Vue, Ethel Murray, Obery Sambo and the Meuram Murray Island Dance Group produce cultural continuity through their headdresses, masks, shields and customary performances. Taking a different approach, Léuli Eshrāghi, Callum McGrath, Archie Moore and Warraba Weatherall demonstrate the need to rethink archival methods to better reflect Indigenous knowledge, diverse communities and individual stories.
Callum Mcgrath / Australia QLD b.1995 / Responsibilities to time (detail) 2019, installed at QAG for 'Embodied Knowledge', September 2022 / Archival inkjet print on Canson PhotoGloss paper / Purchased 2021. QAGOMA Foundation / © Callum McGrath / Photograph: N Harth, QAGOMA
Representations of subjectivity and figuration feature strongly. Portrait projects by Ryan Presley, Heather Marie (Wunjarra) Koowootha, and Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley highlight under-recognised historical figures whose achievements and ideas continue to shape our society, while Moilang (Rosie) Ware and Jenny Watson recount personal and familial memories. Reimagining ideas of the self through digital realms connects Jean Barth’s photo-paintings and Justene Williams’s vibrant installation.
Several projects in the exhibition look to the way humans engage with the environment. The detrimental impact of our consumerist society is writ large in Erika Scott’s sculpture. Caitlin Franzmann, through her performative workshops, promotes stronger connections between people and their natural surroundings. Pertinently, the ecologically sustainable hunting and burning methodologies that continue to be practised by Indigenous Australians are the subject of Megan Cope’s and Robert Andrew’s contributions.
The distinctive practices in ‘Embodied Knowledge’ express the complexity of materials, cultural vivacity and political incisiveness that are hallmarks of contemporary art today.
Ethel Murray's Bumbil Bigin Nguma (remembering my father’s shields) 2022, installed for 'Embodied Knowledge', with a distant view of works by Jean Barth, QAG, December 2022 / Purchased 2023 with funds from Gina Fairfax AC through the QAGOMA Foundation / © Ethel Murray / Photograph: J Ruckli, QAGOMA
‘Embodied Knowledge’
Aug 2022 - Jan 2023