New art and ideas presented at Museum in final season of nginha.
here and now is the culmination of the museum-wide nginha artistic program, which marks ten years of MAMA through seasonal programming speaking to strengths and focus areas for the Museum.
nginha translates from Wiradjuri to English as here, offered as a title for the program by Aunty Jeanine Leane, whose poem Nginha forms the throughline for the three seasons. The program’s first season, you are here presented work by artists of our region, with the following season, gathered here looking to the Museum’s collection and new perspectives on how it is shared. here and now celebrates the commissioning of new art and ideas as a vital part of the Museum’s activities.
For this moment, five artists have been invited to produce new work. Ruth Davys (Wiradjuri / Bungambrawatha / Albury) presents a new moving image work that offers the perspective of Little Ruthie, a thoughtful puppet who shares Wiradjuri Language and philosophies with audiences young and not-so-young. Jazz Money (Wiradjuri / Sydney) will premiere a large-scale work that activates bodies and space and is informed by the poetic impulses of Milawa Bila (Murray River). Presented in the MAMA Atrium, Jazz Money’s work will sit alongside continuing nginha projects by Jeanine Leane and D Harding.
Noriko Nakamura (Castlemaine) has produced three monumental sculptures in limestone, each drawing on perspectives of Japanese Shinto animism and continuing her project of sharing personal experiences of motherhood. Kirtika Kain (Sydney) has used tar and gold on large canvases of turmeric to produce works that are alchemical and carry material histories of extraction and labour. A presentation by Teelah George (Melbourne) continues the artist’s fascination with material potentials, expanding into new experimentations with wax.
In March, a project by Linda Sok, presented in partnership with Campbelltown Arts Centre, will also open as part of the season.
The projects of nginha: here and now address timely concerns including First Nations Language re-vitalisation, the ongoing impacts of colonial actions as well as relationships to Country in the present day. This thinking informs a suite of works indebted to materials drawn from the natural environment – wax, linen, limestone, silk, tar, gold and bronze. These works carefully consider the embedded histories and weight of material practices and inflect each project with stories, ideas, and possibilities that resonate in the current moment.
