Who Speaks for a Community?

                                                           
October 2017.
group exhibition with Kate Power, James Tylor, Grace Marlow, Eugene Choi, Angela Schilling, Seb Henry-Jones, Ellen Davies at Sister Gallery, curated by Isabella Hone-Saunders.
         This exhibition was an opportunity for each artist, the curator and guests to explore their personal relationships with the nebulous term: ‘community.’ This exhibition aimed to utilise Sister gallery as a safe and supportive environment, as well as a platform, for the exploration of personal identity in relation to community. It would be an opportunity for each artist to interrogate their own history/ies, resist or challenge dominant Australian culture and to examine whether their communities have been accorded or denied social space within a gallery space.

This exhibition asked the following questions:

Who speaks for a community?

If a dedicated gallery space does not clearly establish a sense of inclusion or accessibility for multiple communities, what procedures should be set in place to achieve this?

How do we hold gallery spaces/curators accountable for speaking to diverse communities and engaging in cross-cultural dialogues?

The aim is not to present an authoritative answer to any of these questions, rather to open and continue an important dialogue surrounding the notion of ‘community’ and how best to represent the breadth of emerging artists practicing in Australia and their respective communities.

The curator sees a common thread between each of the eight artists work, through their competent abilities to engage with, and speak to, their individual identities. These identities are often fluid and are reflected through multiple community groups. Each artist involved explores themes of community with textural, engaging and exploratory practices. Many of the artists involved respond to gender constructs and gender performativity as a component of their identities, while others reflect on their ethnicity and culture to consider their place and reception in broader society.

Some artists may respond directly to Sister Gallery, as a community space, to examine the social implications or expectations embedded within it. It is the curator’s belief that each artist represents diversity and community in relevant and meaningful ways while resisting hegemonic interpretations of whichever community or communities they associate themselves with or outside of.

Catalogue writer: Hugh Hirst-Johnson.
Exhibition documentation: Christopher Arblaster.