SINGLE CHANNEL

A thought-provoking exhibition drawn from the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) collection hits the Top End, featuring some of the country’s most nationally and internationally significant artists exploring complex questions around embodiment and identity.

WORDS RITA HORANYI

HOW DO OUR bodies convey information to others, often without us even being in control of the messages? How do socially constructed identities shape our lived experience? How do representations of the body change how we perceive ourselves and others?

These are just a few of the profound questions that Single Channel, showing at the Annexe Gallery at Charles Darwin University (CDU), asks visitors to grapple with.

Curated by Larrakia/Wardaman/Karajarri woman and Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at NGA, Tina Baum, the exhibition features a stellar selection of contemporary artists who share a fascination with what the moving image can reveal about the interplay between identity, the body, and representation.

Among the featured works is a spectacular audiovisual installation by Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji artist, Tony Albert, called I am Visible. Employing a striking collage of digital symbols from pop culture images to UFOs and traditional symbols, this immersive work challenges stereotypical representations of First Nations people and their simultaneous visibility and invisibility in this country.

Other key works include pieces by Shaun Gladwell and Tracey Moffatt AO, both of whom have represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. Destiny Deacon in collaboration with Virginia Fraser, Silvana and Gabriella Mangano, and Club Até are also represented.

Chair of Annexe Art Gallery, Janet Parfenovics, hopes the exhibition gets people thinking.

“It’s quite a different exhibition so people will ... hopefully go away with a lot more questions than answers ... certainly it will prompt discussions.”

With another prestigious touring exhibition, Three Echoes – Western Desert Art, also on display next door, there’s never been a better time to explore the beautiful gallery spaces at CDU.

“This is such an accessible venue, and it is part of the whole intent of Danala [CDU’s CBD campus] to be a place that activates and engages with locals and with tourists. It’s accessible, it’s free, and it’s a wonderful thing for Darwin.”

Single Channel
WHEN WED 29 OCT – SAT 28 FEB | OPENING: WED 29 OCT, 6.15PM 
AT ANNEXE ART GALLERY 
INFO cdu.edu.au

^{Image: Tony Albert, Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples, 'I am visible' (video still), 2019, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra © the artist & Sullivan+Strumpf}