Recollections

Curated by Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist Dennis Golding, this group exhibition at Grace Cossington Smith Gallery focusses on intergenerational – and largely matrilineal – modes of making and teaching art. Bridging between the historical and the contemporary, and attending to the ruptures and ongoing violence of colonisation, Recollections highlights the work of First Nations women from within the Artbank collection.

Grace Cossington Smith Gallery is located at Abbotsleigh School, an institution historically grounded in particular kinds of knowledge, and ways of passing on that knowledge. Clearly, though, the gallery has committed to investigating the social and cultural histories from which it emerges. Golding’s curation for Recollections – which focusses on the work of women from multiple generations, and various First Nations communities – emphatically relieves audiences of the idea that European, institutionally sanctioned modes of knowing and making are the prevailing ones in Australian art history. 

In a curatorial statement, Golding focuses on the story of his own grandmother and mother, whose artistic work inspired his own. Golding recalls a childhood in Redfern, surrounded by works that depicted mothers and children sharing food and water – a deft cipher for the matrilineal passing-down of historical, cultural, practical, and embodied knowledge. “My mother handed me the paintbrush at four,” Golding writes, “and since then the brush has transformed into a very powerful tool that allows me, like many other Indigenous artists, to re-write histories and reclaim stories form our own perspectives.” 

The works selected from the Artbank collection for this exhibition highlight the plurality of First Nations experiences and perspectives, covering the work of artists from all over the continent, who work in media from painting to sculpture and photography. A highlight for Golding is Julie Dowling’s The Ungrateful, 1999, which places the vocabulary of Western portraiture alongside visual references to Indigenous art practices, including Papunya Tula dot painting techniques. The work, motivated by Dowling’s commitment to sharing truthful stories of people and place, tells the story of children of the Stolen Generations from a perspective deeply embedded within affected communities. Other highlights include works from Tracey Moffatt, Karla Dickens, and Rea. Amongst the many stories told by this exhibition is that of Indigenous women’s excellence, and innovative contributions to this country’s artistic landscape.

Golding says it best when he writes that “many artists in this exhibition . . . practice art to share truths and stories that connect them to their family, ancestors, and Country. The artworks are visual reflections that are healing, strengthened, bold and accessible. They are multi-layered with realities that connect past with the present and future of First Nations cultural identity.” Recollections is testament to the presence and persistence of these multi-layered realities in our (art) history, and to the necessity of continued celebration of them.

EXHIBITION 
Recollections
30 April – 4 June 2022
Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Sydney