Shadowlife
25 August to 30 September 2012
NAFA Galleries 1 & 2, NAFA Campus 1 (80 Bencoolen St)
Free admission, closed on Mondays
Enquiries: artgalleries@nafa.edu.sg/ 6512 4000
A talk by curator Djon Mundine OAM and artist Bindi Cole will be held on Saturday, 25 August, 2.30 to 4.30pm at the exhibition.
Register with Alicia Lin at hllin@nafa.edu.sg


Opening Ceremony: Friday, 24 August, 6.30pm
Guest of Honour: Mr Lyall Crawford, Counsellor and Consul-General,
Australian High Commission, Singapore


Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), together with Asialink, is proud to present ‘Shadowlife’, a touring exhibition of works by nine internationally renowned contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists such as Christian Thompson, Destiny Deacon, Vernon Ah Kee, Michael Riley, and one non-Indigenous collaborator, Virginia Fraser. 46 photo-based works of photographic prints, videos, films and installation will be shown in Singapore for the first time from 25 August to 30 September at NAFA Galleries 1 & 2. The exhibition comes to Singapore after Bangkok and Kaohsiung and is supported by the Australian High Commission in Singapore. Mr Lyall Crawford, Counsellor and Consul-General at the Australian High Commission, Singapore will officiate the opening ceremony as Guest of Honour on 24 August at 6.30pm.

Wungguli, an Arnhem Land Djambarrpuyngu word, means “spirit” and “shadow” and came to describe a photographic image. Shadows are also used by painters to bring out the depth of subject matter and enhance physical features to create personal characteristics. In a similar manner, ‘Shadowlife’ points to the shaded past of the Australian Aboriginals since the country’s colonisation by the British in 1788 and presents it in new media art forms. Curated by Aborigine Djon Mundine OAM and Natalie King, the exhibition is a platform for the audience to learn more about contemporary Australian art and the indigenous community of Australia, at the same time challenging their perceptions of race, culture and creed. The artists delve into their histories and experiences to create contemporary works which reveal aspects of their lives as seen through their own eyes. They portray figures of others or themselves, choreographing their own stories in stark images that confront stereotypes.

The exhibition curators wrote in the catalogue, “When light shines on something or someone, a shadow is always cast. A person can never desert its shadow and a shadow cannot leave its human original. Every shadow has its own presence and absence. And no more so in this continent, Australia, full of ghosts and shadows honeycombing the historical, social, and physical landscape…”

Ms Bridget Tracy Tan, Director of Institute of Southeast Asian Arts (ISEAA) & Art Galleries at NAFA said, “The artistic expressions of contemporary Southeast Asia continue to engage audiences through new and multiple media, such as photography, video and process installation. The works of Shadowlife employ these genres equally to highlight critical issues surrounding indigenousness, identity and a shrinking, globalised world, familiar territory for Southeast Asian art communities. The issues confronting the contemporary artist of the Asia Pacific region regardless of race and ethnicity define their artistic and aesthetic modernity. These reinforce the fragmentary and wordless dilemmas beyond specific communiqué or exclusive languages. They are also best embodied in fresh, often universal lens of the new and multiple media art era.”

The participating artists are Vernon Ah Kee, Bindi Cole, Brenda L. Croft, Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, Fiona Foley, Gary Lee, Michael Riley, Christian Thompson and Ivan Sen.

NAFA will be presenting a floor talk with Australian co-curator Djon Mundine OAM and artist Bindi Cole on Saturday, 25 August, 2.30pm - 4.30pm at the exhibition. Mundine will talk about the concepts and curatorial process behind Shadowlife in a casual walkabout discussing in-depth the works and their narratives, followed by Cole who would share her creative process as a practicing indigenous Australian artist. This talk is open to public. Interested audience can register with Alicia Lin at hllin@nafa.edu.sg.

- Annex – Images of selected works and profiles of artists

For more information or to arrange for an interview, please contact:

Hazel Chan
Manager, Media Relations
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
DID : 6512 4017