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Composing Archipelagos
Composing Archipelagos
Lucy Bleach
Hobart
Torika Bolatagici
Melbourne/Kadavu & Beqa, Fiji
Aliansyah Caniago & Raisa Kamila
Bandung/Banda Aceh
Jane Chang Mi
Honolulu/Los Angeles
Anthony Johnson
Hobart
Ricky Maynard
Cape Barron Island, Ben Lomond & Cape Portland peoples
Marian Tubbs
Northern Rivers/Sunshine Coast
James Tylor
Canberra/Kuarna/Maõri, English, Scottish & Norwegian peoples
Curated by Jasmin Stephens
Sydney
Contemporary Art Tasmania
17 March–11 April 2021
Ricky Maynard
Broken Heart, 2005
from the Portrait of a Distant Land series
Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
… when we left our own place we were plenty of People,
we are now but a little one.
Excerpt from the 1846 Jeanneret Petition addressed to Queen Victoria
and signed at Wybalenna, Flinders Island, by eight leaders – Walter G
Arthur, Chief of the Ben Lomond Tribes, John Allen, King Alexander,
Augustus, Davey Bruney, Neptune, King Tippoo and Washington.
It sought the dismissal of Dr Henry Jeanneret, the superintendent
on Flinders Island. Notably, Aboriginal birth names and Countries
were not used by the signatories except by Walter. CSO (Colonial
Secretary’s Office), 11/26/378, Reel Z181, pp 13-15, Tasmanian Archives
and Heritage Office.
2 3
Doubting Divides Hawaiki, Tylor, an Australian of Maõri descent, holds a connection
to Aotearoa New Zealand as his Hawaiki. In his Aotearoa My
Hawaiki (2015) series Tylor uses the device of ripped paper to
In Composing Archipelagos artists from across the Asia Pacific cut across the perspectival conventions of Western landscape
deploy ideas that engage with the archipelago and that challenge photography to reveal fissures in his identity. This narrow band of
colonial myths of islandness. In doing so, they join a movement in fibrous paper suggests an opening in the earth’s crust, exposing
which the epistemological, cultural and spatial discourse of the the underside of the landscape, in imagery that realigns familiar
archipelago is increasingly being cited as a decolonising counter- vistas with the shifting spatial perspectives of the archipelago.
narrative to the imposition of colonial borders and the hierarchies
of global exchange. The work of Torika Bolatagici recognises that the First Nations
peoples of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, the great ocean continent,
The archipelago with its unifying but elastic quality asserts the continue to embody the legacy of colonial histories. Her
ocean as a connecting rather than a dividing force. For scholars documentary series Remembrance (Viti) (2016) is part of a
and activists from Southeast Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean, wider project recording the story of the Fijian veterans who were
it contests perceptions of regional knowledge and experience as involved in Britain’s nuclear testing program at Christmas Island
remote and scattered. and Malden Island in the 1950s. Bolatagici is collaborating with
journalist Nic Maclellan, members of the Fiji Nuclear Veterans
Any consideration of the archipelago must acknowledge how Association and Fijian-based filmmakers to highlight the impact
regimes use the ocean to enforce separation – whether in the of veterans’ exposure to hazardous levels of ionising radiation.
case of incarcerated penal and economically destitute populations
or asylum seekers. Underlining this, the exhibition begins with As an artist and ocean engineer, Jane Chang Mi’s professions
Ricky Maynard’s iconic self-portrait, Broken Heart (2005). In afford interdisciplinary capabilities which she acknowledges as
his elegiac image, Maynard scans the horizon for a glimpse of inexorably linked to the militarisation and territorial claims of
the Tasmanian shore. Standing on Flinders Island where his Ben the Pacific. In her first work, Half a Meter (2015/2021), Chang Mi
Lomond and Cape Portland forebears were removed to, it carries registers rising sea levels, marked by a pole bearing the flag of
a sense of sorrow and fortitude. The work is displayed by the the Maldives, the low lying archipelagic state of 26 atolls in the
artist with an excerpt from the 1846 Jeanneret Petition addressed Indian Ocean, once known as the Western Oceans to the Chinese.
to Queen Victoria by community leaders – ‘when we left our own In a second work, The Church of Life (2019), she honours
place we were plenty of People, we are now but a little one.’ Hawaiian activist, orator and vocal performer George Helm (1950
–disappeared 1977) by raising a banner bearing his words. While
James Tylor also conveys a yearning for his ancestral lands. As the felt banner may be reminiscent of an architecturally-defined
Maõri peoples look to Avaiki as their Polynesian homeland or place of worship, Helms’ reverence for the environment which is
4 5
oceanic. The agency which Bleach accords her materials further
destabilises the borders between humanity and planetary forces.
For a number of the artists, their pursuits have a correspondence
with the increasing prominence of geographic schema in the
arts and humanities. Tasmanian artists, in particular, have made
an early commitment to working in this way. The emergence of
cultural geography has seen the disassembling of the divisions
between the discipline’s physical and human strands. Another
shift has seen the spatial frameworks of geographic enquiry
challenge time as the undisputed driver of historical events.
Likewise, the complexities of time have become more central
George Jarrett Helm Jr
to geography.
source: public domain, 2021
Against this backdrop, Aliansyah Caniago and Raisa Kamila have
developed a game styled after the well-known Cards Against
inclusive of sky, ocean and land imparts principles that are central Humanity. Their game has its genesis in board games produced
to Native Hawaiian thought and cosmology. in The Netherlands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
featuring the exploits of exotic figures such as Acehnese freedom
Lucy Bleach continues her material experimentation through her fighter Teuku Umar (1854-1899). In Composing Archipelagos
response to the phenomenon of harmonic tremor – a sustained Edition, Cards Against History (2021) players complete the fill-
release of seismic and infrasonic energy typically associated with in-the-blank statements using texts from the journal of Dutch
the underground movement of magma. Obsidian from Tuhua ¯ navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659) and the poetry of
Mayor Island, off Aotearoa New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, acts as a Hamzah Fansuri, the Sumatran Sufi writer who lived between the
resonating body amplifying the sound of the Brothers Volcano in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The game is accompanied
the Bay’s South Kermadec Trench. Bleach evinces an appreciation by a longitudinally composed painting, Cabinet of Common
for the ‘archipelic thought’ of Martinique-born French philosopher Beings (2021), by Caniago – suspended between tree branches
Édouard Glissant (1928-2011) – a mode of thinking that Glissant that often accompany his performances.
posited as lighter and more generative than monolithic continental
thought. Characterised as a ‘trembling’ that resists globalising With a Sumatran heritage, Caniago and Kamila, an historian
systems, in Bleach’s work such ‘trembling’ exceeds the land-sea by training, attend to Fansuri and Tasman as transnational
dialectic – doubting the divide between the terrestrial and the figures. Fansuri is considered the first known poet of the Malay
6 7
archipelago. Widely travelled and thought to have worked at
the court of the Aceh Sultanate, his pantheism, derived from
medieval Islamic scholars, has been both celebrated and deemed
heretical. Tasman was employed by the Dutch East India Company,
a multinational publicly listed company which exercised as
much influence upon foreign relations as Western European
governments of the day. Sailing from Batavia, he was the first
European voyage commander to arrive at Tasmania (named Van
Diemen’s Land by Tasman), Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand.
While asserting the paradigm of the archipelago as a way of
disrupting the persistent through lines of colonisation, it is vital
that artists’ work is not overly prescribed by a cartographic
interpretation. Similarly, the tendency of accounting for artists’
practices in terms of locality requires our scrutiny. Composing
Archipelagos was therefore conceived to incorporate aspects of
practice that loosen geographic frameworks.
Anthony Johnson distils observations around his pre-pandemic
residency in Ubud, Bali, into distinct forms. Reflecting his adept
thinking and affinity with ordinary materials, he presents a poem;
two surfboard templates which are faithful tracings of banana
leaves; and two framed tourist paintings rendered in compounded
laxative and reflux medication.
Surfboard templates are often combined to form an ideal shape
and reflect their historical lineage. In the repeated shaping of these
templates, Johnson hones a blueprint that he perceives as ‘white
and colonial’ and that is imbued with the designs of Western
surfing culture upon ‘unspoiled’ Pacific locales. Repurposing the
Toekoe Oemar game, produced 1886 by Jos Vas Dias & Co Amsterdam travel medication, he sullies Bali’s renowned beauty, tarnishing our
courtesy: Raisa Kamila, 2021 holiday getaway.
8 9
10 11
Marian Tubbs’ installation of random images, poor materials and critiques. Here I have been informed by First Nations critic and
‘small talk’ traverses the vogue for waterborne structures and the writer Lana Lopesi from Aotearoa New Zealand and her text,
biosecurity they offer in COVID times. Their buying and selling False Divides (2018), in which digital considerations intersect
extends the climate gentrification now taking place in coastal cities. with the re-assertion of kinship by scholars and practitioners
of decolonisation.
Casting her objects and images adrift, Tubbs effects a preference
for the dissident and a disregard for the binaries of primary and The title of my introduction – Doubting Divides – is derived
iterative and authentic and fake. In this exhibiting context there is from Lopesi’s interrogation of the ‘false divides’ enforced
some question how Tubbs’ flawed mimicry functions in relation by imperialism in the Moana. These divides are territorial,
to the aspirations of Pacific peoples. There is shared opposition disciplinary and theoretical and in proffering this title I express
to individualism but more broadly – possibilities arise at the my admiration for the scepticism – often divisive – at work in
juncture of Tubbs’ upending of value systems and ‘archipelic’ the thinking and imaginative lives of all of the artists.
thinking’s non-hierarchical conceptual and spatial relations.
Jasmin Stephens
Within the Western European philosophical tradition we are Pirrama Peninsular
familiar with the correlation between the exercising of power Lands of the Wangal and Gadigal Clans of the Eora Nation
and the arrangement of space. In the wake of postcolonialism, Sydney, March 2021
however, far reaching critique is needed. The archipelago – warm
and cool – presents troubling claims because in unifying a myriad
of cultural and geographical formations it is one and many things
simultaneously. As a distributed entity it can resist the totalising
constructs of global transactions, and at the same time, as a
cosmopolitan body it has no traffic with assumptions about
regional knowledge as dispersed and incoherent.
To assume an ‘archipelic’ mindset is to be more open to
historic and current geosocial relations and to countenance the
possibility of Australia as part of the Asia Pacific to a lesser or
greater degree. That said, I am conscious of not presuming an
understanding of the conditions in which such a diverse group of
artists are practising. Nor can a group show – albeit in a regional
situation – adequately convey the nature of their ‘located’
Torika Bolatagici
Remembrance (Viti), 2016
1'm_steel_h00ngRy_123_:((
I tend to focus on things that are on their last legs.
Luckily we're phasing out plastic cutlery,
but they're a thing of beauty too,
as an object,
they have the quality that I'm looking for,
that plastic nature.
Old video security cameras,
they have a similar finish.
I mean,
teeth
and hand handrails have been around for a long time.
In terms of my personal history,
that's still being explored
[sm3ll__teh-fUsh_f!nG3rz//_]
I work intuitively,
I push colour around an awful lot.
When you push colour around without overthinking it,
or expecting something of the colour
and the situation,
you'll find something unexpected.
It's the same making pictures
and music,
that's often when exciting things happen,
when you're out of control.
12
eATS3222_#freeDELIVZ
Torika Bolatagici Remembrance (Viti) #8, 2016 14 15
Anthony Johnson Mount Agung Volcano, Bali (Promag)© and Nungung Waterfall, Bali (Laxing)©, 2020 18 19
Anthony Johnson Stuff boogie-board full of marijuana
Turis poem, Bali 2020 Buy bottle of Scotch whiskey, duty-free
Steal bottle of French Chanel, care-free
Buy durian
Get Rid®
Rid® durian
Hire surf scooter
Surf hire board
Hire driver bored
Get continence diaper, asap
Refill scooter with whiskey, care-free
Inflate neck-pillow during bout of vertigo
Inflate pool-ring during bout of gastro
Spray your diaper
Chanel your durian
Durian your diaper
Take day-trip
Refill driver with durian
Meet white surfer tanned by waxing beautician
Stuff bored surfer full of marijuana
Empty belly into coconut
Sight wasted surfer tripping
on scooter while driving
See bored beautician waxing
hire board while scrolling
Surf bored
Boogie bored
Boogie tanned
Serve with bamboo straw
20 21Marian Tubbs
the sun will eat itself (where Gs go to paradise)
video stills, 2021
22 23Marian Tubbs sunscreen eyeball frangipani gateway, 2020/21 24 25
Lucy Bleach Brothers, 2021 28
30 31
33 Aliansyah Caniago & Raisa Kamila Composing Archipelagos Edition, Cards Against History, 2021 32 33
James Tylor Aotearoa my Hawaiki #5 #11 #12 #3, 2015 34 35
James Tylor Aotearoa my Hawaiki #5, 2015 36 37
List of Works
Lucy Bleach Aliansyah Caniago & Anthony Johnson Ricky Maynard
Brothers, 2021 Kamila Raisa Mount Agung Volcano, Bali Broken Heart, from Portrait of a
¯
Obsidian from Tuhua Mayor Composing Archipelagos Edition, (Promag)®, 2020 Distant Land series, 2005
Island, crystal, transducer Cards Against History, 2021 Compounded reflux tablets Gelatin silver print on resin
speakers and South Kermadec Set of 120 playing cards in teak on paper coated paper
Trench acoustic data sourced box with metal fittings, offset 33.2 x 38.4 cm (framed) 89 x 68 cm (framed)
from Brothers underwater printing on velcro-backed
volcano, Aotearoa cardboard with gold embossing, Nungnung Waterfall, Bali Marian Tubbs
New Zealand edition of five, presented with (Laxing)®, 2020 sunscreen eyeball frangipani
Site-responsive installation furniture and display board Compounded constipation tablets gateway, 2020/21
720 x 1000 cm (obsidian) Cards each 21 x 15 cm on paper Mixed media with sound
Box 34 x 35.5 x 28 cm 39.3 x 30.9 cm (framed) Site-responsive installation
Torika Bolatagici Installation dimensions variable Dimensions variable
Remembrance (Viti), #1 #6 #7 #8 Turis poem, Bali, 2020
#10, 2016 Jane Chang Mi the sun will eat itself (where Gs
Inkjet prints on archival paper Half a Meter, 2015/2021 Surf Bored go to paradise), 2021
62 x 79 cm (#1 #7 #8 #10) and Inkjet print on backlit film Banana leaf (7’9”), 2021 Digital video, 6:00 minutes
79 x 62 cm (#6) (framed) 90 x 135 cm Plywood surfboard template Exhibited without sound in
233 x 30 x 0.4 cm site-responsive installation
Aliansyah Caniago The Church of Life, 2019
Cabinet of Common Beings, 2021 Felt with metal eyelets Banana leaf (5’6”), 2021 James Tylor
Acrylic, ink and oil pastel on 150 x 120 cm Plywood surfboard template Aotearoa my Hawaiki, #3 #5 #11
canvas, tree branches Words of George Jarrett Helm Jr 164 x 27 x 0.4 cm #12, 2015
Canvas 600 x 160 cm Inkjet prints on ripped
Branches each 10 x 260 x 10 cm Hahnemuhle paper
Each 60 x 60 cm (framed)
38 39ACKNOWLEDGeMENTS Contemporary Art Tasmania
27 Tasma Street
North Hobart
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Anthony Johnson developed Tasmania 7000 Australia
is gratefully acknowledged for his work while in residence at T +61 3 6231 0445
lending work by Ricky Maynard. Kedewatan Residency Program, E info@contemporaryart.org.au
We thank Zoe Rimmer, Senior Ubud, Indonesia. www.contemporaryarttasmania.org
Curator Indigenous Cultures;
Dr Julie Gough, Curator Indigenous Marian Tubbs acknowledges © Contemporary Art Tasmania, the artists and author, 2021
Cultures; and colleagues. Fabian Pertzel for assistance with
animation. Design: Cath Robinson
Lucy Bleach acknowledges Photography: Rémi Chauvin; Jasmin Stephens, page 33
Dr Robert Dziak, Pacific Marine Jasmin Stephens developed Printing: Monotone
Environmental Laboratory, US the exhibition with support as a
National Oceanic and Atmospheric ISBN: 978-0-947335-15-1
UNSW Art & Design Scientia PhD
Administration, for providing Edition: 250
researcher. Together with the
hydroacoustic recordings of artists, Jasmin acknowledges the
harmonic tremor from Brothers Cover: Aliansyah Caniago, Cabinet of Common Beings (detail), 2021
CAT Team for the reach of its care
Volcano; Jon Smeathers for sound Inside: Jane Chang Mi, The Church of Life, 2019, and Half a Meter
and input across pandemic times.
assistance; Merinda Young, Tudor (with inside back cover detail), 2015/2021
Konfir Kabo’s ongoing interest
Rose Glass, for technical advice and
and support and the collegiality
kiln facility; and Stuart Houghton
of the Ten Days on the Island
for install construction. The CAT
Team is also appreciated.
Team is thanked for its latitude
and support in permitting further
Anthony Johnson is represented
incisions into the gallery walls. The
by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.
obsidian used was sourced from
the island of Tuhua
¯ Mayor, Aotearoa Ricky Maynard is represented by
New Zealand, the ancestral home Bett Gallery, Hobart.
of Te Whanau¯ ¯
A Tauwhao ki Tuhua, Marian Tubbs is represented by
who are acknowledged as the STATION, Melbourne and Sydney.
¯
traditional custodians of Tuhua James Tylor is represented
(rock and island). by Vivien Anderson Gallery,
Naarm Melbourne, GAGProjects,
Aliansyah Caniago and Raisa Tarntanyangga Adelaide, and
Kamila acknowledge Donni Arifiato’s McNamara Gallery, Whanganui,
technical support and thank Konfir Aoteoroa New Zealand.
Kabo and Project Eleven.
40 41Contemporary Art Tasmania acknowledges the original and traditional
owners of the land we work on, the muwina and pakana/palawa; we
pay respect to their elders across all times and recognise today’s
Tasmanian Aboriginal families as custodians of lutruwita/Tasmania.
Contemporary Art Tasmania is supported by the Australian
Government through the Australia Council, its principal arts funding
body, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the
Australian, State and Territory Governments, and is assisted through
Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.
TEN
DAYS
ON THE ISLAND
42contemporaryarttasmaina.org
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