Boasting ambitious works from contemporary artists, the Southern Highlands’ first regional art gallery is well worth a visit. Originally founded by Ben Quilty, Ngununggula has repurposed a former dairy shed and veterinary clinic as an art destination with a heritage-sensitive, state-of-the-art design.
The brand new exhibition Land Abounds places leading contemporary artists and brothers Abdul-Rahman Abdullah and Abdul Abdullah in dialogue with four significant video installations by one of their greatest influences, renowned video collage artist Tracey Moffatt. Rarely presented side-by-side, the Muslim-Australian brothers share a visual language through their artistic practice, with the newly commissioned and existing works they present here share fascinating dialogues, enhanced by Moffat’s film works.
In one room, Abdul-Rahman’s aptly-titled new work Dead Horse, featuring a life-size wooden carving of a horse, lays on the floor. It invites a dialogue on a horse’s place as a “trophy pet”, and the species' servitude to humankind. On the wall behind it is Abdul’s ten-metre-wide multi-panel painting titled Legacy assets, which depicts a bird’s-eye view of the landscape of Berrima. Both works have a connection to the Southern Highlands landscape which surrounds the gallery. However an unignorable layer of meaning comes from a phrase in stark white graffiti-like font, scrawled over the idyllic vista, it reads: “What would our public collections look like if we divested them of sex pests and peadophiles?”
It is a bold statement that probably wouldn’t fly in a more centralised state or national gallery. Speaking on this work, Abdul says: “So after doing a fair bit of research and reading memoirs, biographies and diaries, I just felt that if any of these artists who have been held up for such a long time were my contemporaries, were my peers, we wouldn't be friends. Like, it would be a matter for the police.”
It got the artist thinking about the entitlement people can have to other’s bodies, and the way “artistic genius” has been used as an excuse for protecting the perpetrators of bad behaviour: “There’s so much experience with that sort of thing [inflicted by] generally speaking, an older generation of artists, arts workers and people in institutions who feel entitled to their [other people’s] bodies… the idea of genius, as a way to justify really appalling behaviour has never sat well with me. I just think it's bullshit.”
The works in Land Abounds are not only visually interesting and provocative, but have many layers of meaning that can be detangled from them. This exhibition establishes Ngununggula as a gallery to watch. Make the time to make the 90-minute drive to Bowral from Sydney, and follow up the food for thought with food for your belly at the on-site Hearth café – it serves up a flavour-driven seasonal menu created using ingredients from Moonacres Farm and local growers.
Land Abounds is showing until July 24. Ngununggula is open daily from 10am to 4pm, and entry is free.
