TO WALK ON A SEA OF SALT
ROSEMARY LAING
TWILIGHT
SUSAN NORRIE and DAVID MACKENZIE
27 February - 6 April 2008
Rosemary Laing 5.10am, 15 December 2004 [2004]
image courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Susan Norrie & David Mackenzie Twilight [video still] [2005]
image courtesy the artists and Mori Gallery, Sydney
The artists would like to acknowledge the support and co-operation
of the community at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra
As a satellite exhibition to the Art Gallery of SA's Australian Biennial of Australian Art Handle With Care - CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ART PROJECTS 2008 presents Rosemary Laing's photographic series to walk on a sea of salt, and Susan Norrie/David Mackenzie's video installation Twilight - both exhibitions establishing a resonant link with the ABAA's theme of "the fragile nature of our relationships with the cultural and natural environments in which we live", and recent changes on the national political landscape.
With cinematic overtones, Susan Norrie/David Mackenzie's Twilight documents the Aboriginal Tent Embassy that has intermittently existed on the lawns outside the Old Parliament House in Canberra since Australia Day 1972 and permanently since Australia Day 1992, and rightfully acknowledges the physical and political importance of this materially indeterminate site. Like the Aboriginal Tent Embassy itself, Twilight combines a mixture of politics, symbolism and theatre to engage us with our world - a timely work given the Federal Government's recent apology to the Stolen Generation.
"Rosemary Laing's series to walk on a sea of salt moves within the echoes of history and the hallucinations of memory. Exploring sites of cultural significance that have played on our collective imagination, the work traces Sturt's journey to the nation's 'dead centre', draws upon the iconic South Australian landscapes of Heysen, and visits our recent past at Woomera. It speculates upon periods and debates which have informed the language of place, culture and nationalism across the country's psyche." (Tanya Peterson, catalogue essay)
This will be Rosemary Laing and Susan Norrie/David Mackenzie's first exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Centre of SA. Both Laing and Norrie have extensive exhibition histories nationally and internationally over the past 20 years in major museum, solo and group exhibitions and international biennales. Susan Norrie/David Mackenzie represented Australia at the 2007 Venice Biennale, while Rosemary Laing was included in Think with the Senses - Feel with the mind: Art in the present tense, 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2007, curated by Robert Storr at the Arsenale.
Rosemary Laing catalogue (pdf) by Tanya Petersen
Susan Norrie/David Mackenzie catalogue (pdf) by Adrian Davies