The John Curtin Gallery and MUMA (Monash University Museum of Art) will present a major survey exhibition of the work of Bidjara artist, Christian Thompson, one of Australia\u2019s leading and most intriguing contemporary artists.<\/p>\n
Perth audiences will have the opportunity to view photographic, video and sound-based works by this major artist. Thompson interweaves themes of identity, race and history with his lived experience. Christian Thompson: Ritual Intimacy <\/em>explores the unique perspective and breadth of Thompson\u2019s practice from the fashioning of identity through to his ongoing interest in Indigenous language as the expression of cultural survival.<\/p>\n Featuring a major commission created for this exhibition, Christian<\/em> Thompson: Ritual Intimacy <\/em>surveys Thompson\u2019s diverse practice and is also accompanied by the first monograph on the artist\u2019s work, including essays by Brian Catling RA and Professor Dame Marina Warner DBE, CBE, FBA, FRSL. The specially commissioned installation is an ambitious multichannel composition, developing the sonic experimentation that is a signature of Thompson\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Incorporating Bidjara language, it will invite viewers into an immersive space of wall-to-wall imagery and sound.<\/p>\n \u201cBidjara is officially an endangered language but my work is motivated by the simple yet profound idea that if even one word of an endangered language is spoken it continues to be a living language,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n The new multichannel work develops musical ideas Thompson has previously explored.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be a much more ambitious iteration of a song in Bidjara. At one stage I\u2019m singing on one screen and then other versions of me appear singing the melodies. I really see it as an opportunity to do something that\u2019s more complex musically, more textured sonically \u2013 I also want it to be more intricate with my use of language,\u201d the artist says.<\/p>\n Ritual Intimacy <\/em>is curated by MUMA director Charlotte Day and guest curator Hetti Perkins.<\/p>\n Day explains that the exhibition was part of MUMA\u2019s Australian artist series.<\/p>\n \u201cChristian\u2019s exhibition traces a particularly productive period of research and development, from early well-known works such as the Australian Graffiti <\/em>series to more recent experiments with language in sound and song works,\u201d Day says.<\/p>\n A long-time curatorial collaborator with Thompson, Perkins is the writer and presenter of art <\/em>+ soul<\/em>, the ABC\u2019s acclaimed television series about contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Thompson was accepted to Oxford University on an inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholarship, set up to honour Hetti Perkins\u2019s famous father \u2013 a leader, activist and the first Aboriginal Australian to graduate from university.<\/p>\n Perkins says the MUMA exhibition is well-earned recognition for Thompson\u2019s work, which she featured in the second series of art <\/em>+ soul.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cChristian has spent periods of his adult life, as a practicing artist, away from home, but there is a common thread in his work, and it\u2019s this connection to home or Country,\u201d Perkins says.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of the rituals or rites of the exhibition title, he is constantly reiterating that connection to home \u2013 through words, through performance, through his art, through ideas and writing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Alongside performance and ritual, Thompson\u2019s concept of \u201cspiritual repatriation\u201d is central to his work.<\/p>\n Christian Thompson: Ritual Intimacy<\/em> at John Curtin Gallery is made possible through the support of the John Curtin Gallery\u2019s Principal Presenting Partner Navitas Ltd and supported by the JCG Founders\u2019 Club.<\/strong><\/p>\n The exhibition is featured at the John Curtin Gallery until 21 July 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The John Curtin Gallery and MUMA (Monash University Museum of Art) will present a major survey exhibition of the work of Bidjara artist, Christian Thompson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4273,"featured_media":11638,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-19276","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Christian-Thompson-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Yasmine","last_name":"Phillips","display_name":"Yasmine Phillips"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/19276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/19276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19276"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=19276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}