Introduction by the curator, Kath Fries
Transcription:
Hello, my name is Kath Fries and I'm the curator of HIDDEN Rookwood sculptures 2022 on Dharug country. Welcome. I hope you enjoy looking at the artworks and listening to the artists share their insights and stories through these audio tours.
You can access each artist recording by using your mobile phone to scan the QR code next to their artwork, and you can also find these recordings on our website, hiddeninrookwood.com.au. The artists in hidden have each carefully considered their own way of responding to Rookwood Cemetery, and so the act of sharing their artworks here becomes a cultural extension of the diverse traditions, rituals and markers that are so important in Rookwood. This has been a place of cultural practice for tens of thousands of years.
The Dharug people have been here and are still here practicing culture, caring for this place and remembering their ancestors. I respect and acknowledge the Dharug people as a traditional custodians of this land, waters and sky and pay my respects to their eldest past, present and emerging. I'm delighted that we have Wiradjuri, Barkindji, Dharug, and Bundjalung artists in HIDDEN this year. Their artworks individually honour and explore their ancestral traditions, spirituality and personal sense of connection to community and country.
There are continuous, fascinating threads linking all the artworks in HIDDEN through the poetics of remembering back into history and across generations, as well as recent events like the black summer bushfires and ongoing impact of COVID all the artworks in HIDDEN are personal in different ways. Several conjure individual experiences of grieving and caring, paying personal tributes to a loved family member who has passed away. Some share an element of the artist cultural or religious traditions, whilst others engage with contemporary social and environmental issues. Collectively, all the artworks invite us to ponder our relationships with other people and our world, opening deeper philosophical questions about how we live today.
The diversity of the artists in HIDDEN is reflected across cultural, religious, social, language and immigration backgrounds. Their ancestry is also expansive, hailing from Indonesia, Norway, Korea, Iran, Eastern and Western Europe, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Lebanon, Samoa, Russia, UK and India. The gathering of these artists and their works amongst the gardens, memoriums and history of Rookwood significantly contributes to our wider understandings of grieving, death and remembrance. Although the subject of death is often avoided in our everyday lives, that's not necessarily the case in the creative arts.
Across cultures and through art history, artists have always been emotively drawn towards trying to understand death and dying, which is an essential part of being human. During our lives we will all experience a loved one passing away and eventually we too will also die. So taking the time to engage with these artworks and the special contemplative setting of Rookwood encourages such reflections and conversations, which in turn prompts us to consider how we live, how we spend our time, what we value and celebrate.
This year we're also presenting a HIDDEN satellite exhibition at ACU Strathfield McGlade Gallery, a short seven minute drive from Rookwood. Just as satellites orbit around the Earth to aid in communication, the HIDDEN satellite exhibition shares additional information, ideas, insights and the working processes from several of the HIDDEN artists. It will be open Monday to Saturday, from Seventeenth September to eighth of October, and I encourage you to visit.
At Rookwood you can join me for curator tours at dusk on Wednesdays starting in the late afternoon, and on the weekends in the mornings and afternoons. During HIDDEN there will be artists performances, a Dharug commitment to country ceremony, Short film screenings and a closing family day festival on Sunday, the ninth of October. You can find more information on our website, hiddeninrookwood.com.au. I hope you enjoy visiting HIDDEN Rookwood Sculptures 2022.