24 March - 24 June 2012

PROJECT / CHILDREN'S / NEW MEDIA / REGIONAL ART SPACE

MENAGERIE: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS SCULPTURE

Menagerie: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture is a unique and groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary Indigenous Australian sculpture. It includes both well-known and emerging artists, who have each produced outstanding sculptural works depicting a variety of animals. Through these works the artists share with us their cultural knowledge, expressions of Identity and connections to country.

Menagerie has been developed through an unusual and mutually rewarding collaboration between Object: Australian Centre for Craft & Design and the Australian Museum.

Menagerie: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture is an Object Gallery and

Australian Museum Touring Exhibition.

Object: Australian centre for Craft and Design is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. Object is assisted by the New South Wales Government – Arts NSW, and the Australian government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body;

The Australian Museum strives to inspire the exploration of nature and cultures. It is a cultural attraction and is principally funded by the New South Wales Government through Arts NSW.

This exhibition has been supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia and by the Contemporary Touring Initiative through Visions of Australia, and Australian Government program; and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and the state and territory governments

This exhibition has been supported by the Queensland Government through Trade Queensland’s Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency (QIAMEA). QIAMEA promotes Queensland’s Indigenous arts industry through marketing and export activity throughout Australia and internationally.

Dennis Nona
Gubuka (Stingrays) 2008
bronze and aluminium with pearl shell inlay
108 x 75 x 106cm
Courtesy of the artist and Australian Art Print Network
Image © Australian Museum

11 May - 24 June 2012

PROJECT SPACE

JOSEPH McGLENNON: STRANGE VOYAGE
A life in design and advertising have given photographer Joseph McGlennon an eye for the dramatic. His kangaroo studies are a continuation of his fascination of Cook's return to England in 1771, carrying a vast number of Australian specimens of plants and animals previously unknown to Europeans, the strangest of which was a kangaroo. His work seeks to locate the proud but (to European eyes) exotic animal within an unfamiliar (to Australian eyes) and equally exotic European landscape.

Joseph McGlennon
Kangaroo Study Number 7, 2010
giclee digital prints
100 x 100 cm
Image © the artist

7 April - 15 July 2012

MUSEUM SPACE

DHAGA NGIYANHI NGAN.GIRRA / WHERE WE ALL MEET

DHAGA NGIYANHI NGAN.GIRRA / WHERE WE ALL MEET uses Dubbo and in particular the site of the Western Plains Cultural Centre, the former Wingewarra Swamp, as an historical meeting point for local Dubbo-ga (Aboriginal) Clans. The exhibition will present significant aspects of Wiradjuri culture through the artists’ use of traditional materials and techniques - body painting, weaving, pokerwork, language, stories etc, as well as traditional materials - possum skins, native grasses, feathers and kangaroo hides. These skills which have been passed down from one generation to the next are utilised by the artists and ensures the development and continuation of local cultural practices.  The exhibition will comprise works by Lynette Riley of kangaroo-skins incised with Wiradjuri symbols that represent Totems – Nations, Clans, Family and individual representations across Country, using pokerwork. Diane Riley-McNaboe, presents intricately woven head-dresses and belts, rendered using local native grasses and the feathers of native birds, revealing hitherto unseen techniques of traditional dress It is significant that this, their first exhibition is held in their home community.

Image: Lynette Riley & Diane Riley-McNaboe wearing Kangaroo-skin cloaks, headdresses and belts near the Macquarie River at Terramungamine, January 2012. Photograph by Shantell Toomey.

Image © Shantell Toomey

MAIN MUSEUM

PEOPLE PLACES POSSESSIONS: DUBBO STORIES
Dubbo means red ochre. The city dwells in red soil western plains, infused with pastoral light and productivity. This place breathes the energy and passion of its people, past and present. We all experience place by moving through it, all our senses alive to its shifting shapes and moods. This sense of place is created through the entanglements of nature and culture, past and future dreams, shared stories and collective memory.

In this exhibition we explore pastoral landscapes with symbols of agriculture and family ambition. Dubbo streetscapes reveal the changing facades of shops and the hidden stories within. Storytellers spin yarns about Dubbo events and identities. There are many objects from the old Dubbo Museum, material traces of past lives and aspirations. They speak in eloquent silence about people, place and possessions.

LEARN MORE

Download catalogue (603kb)

Installation view:
People Places Possessions: Dubbo Stories