Title

Gifts to the Fallen

Venues

Art Gallery of Western Australia. (2 July 2016 – 9 July 2017)

Date

(2016 – 2017)

Curator

Carly Lane, Curator Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia

Abstract

This new Gallery space will become a permanent display space for AGWA’s growing collection of objects. All people and cultures grapple with how to deal with death. It is a distressing experience for those dying and those left behind. In spite of this, funerals and other mortuary ceremonies can be splendid things. They allow us to mourn and also to celebrate life in equal measure; they enable us to remember the individuals and groups of people who have in some way shaped our present and our past. The exhibition, Gifts to the Fallen, is both a pragmatic and sentimental response to death, and the ceremonies around it, from an Aboriginal perspective. It presents a combination of traditional and contemporary objects that reference Aboriginal mortuary beliefs and practices. By opening up these ideas, the exhibition is also an invitation for all of us to remember someone who was close or special – for remembering is perhaps the best and last gift we can give the departed. Artists represented include Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Janet Fieldhouse, Ricardo Idagi, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Dr David Malangi, Yhonnie Scarce, Roy Wiggan and Joyce Winsley. [Gallery media]