Atong Atem Exhibition - New Annual Festival
Although the artist’s work is currently on display at Tate Modern London, Ethiopian born, south Sudanese Atem spent her early years living with her family on the NSW Central Coast, before studying at The University of Newcastle.
Internationally renowned photographer Atong Atem presents striking video and photographic portraiture in her first exhibition in Newcastle. Exploring the lesser-known history of Australia’s first African settlers, Atong Atem presents migrant stories and obscured layers of history on a cinematic scale.
The works in Banksia highlight the experience of African men and women who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788— a colonial history that started long before Atem’s own family arrived from South Sudan to Cardiff in 1997.
Presented within an unconventional venue, the exhibition features a beguiling video work propelled by an arresting score from composer Jerry Agbinya. Exhibited alongside Atem's accompanying large-scale photographic prints.
Known for her vibrant portraits, Atem's work reflects on the important and shifting role that photographic images hold in the migratory experience; "We have few things that travel continents with us as familial practises. We have recipes and textiles, crocheted doilies and Majok beads, and we have photo albums. Some faces in our photographs are drawn over with a marker, some cut out entirely. Some photos are much, much older than me, others were printed from an iPhone. Photos are gestures, examples of culture in flux".
This exhibition is a vivid offering that traces the cultural experience of belonging to two places, and how this history is remembered through images and objects.
Banksia is presented by Newcastle Art Gallery and New Annual, as part of City of Newcastle’s New Annual festival. It is the first major exhibition of Atong Atem's work in the Hunter Region. Atong Atem is represented by MARS Gallery, Melbourne.
