Bundanon

Shoalhaven, NSW: Bundanon has today announced its 2024 exhibition season program and the plans for a dedicated new Collection gallery designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects.

Building on the success of the 2023 exhibition season – currently showing Miwatj Yolŋu – Sunrise People (until 11 February 2024) – the 2024 exhibition season will see three major exhibitions by renowned artists Jumaadi, Sancintya Mohini Simpson, and Jonathan Jones, as well as Arthur Boyd.

Throughout 2024 Bundanon will work with Kerstin Thompson Architects to reimagine the existing architecture inside the award-winning subterranean Art Museum to create a dedicated gallery for the Bundanon Collection. Awarded the Sulman Medal for Public Architecture in the 2022 NSW Architecture Awards for the design of Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge for Creative Learning, Kerstin Thompson Architects will significantly expand the existing gallery footprint, creating additional exhibition space and a dedicated gallery for the permanent Collection. A significant part of Arthur and Yvonne Boyd’s gift of Bundanon in 1993, the Bundanon Collection includes an extensive collection of artworks by Arthur Boyd and his family, in addition to works by Sidney Nolan, Brett Whiteley, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. Today, the Collection also includes contemporary work from previous artists in residence, new commissions and private donations.

Bundanon CEO Rachel Kent comments: “2024 will mark two years since the opening of Bundanon’s new Art Museum and the Bridge for Creative Learning. Today, we are delighted to announce a full calendar of major exhibitions, showcasing the work of leading Australian artists.”

“The upcoming expansion of Bundanon’s award-winning Art Museum is also an important new chapter for the organisation. This development will provide the public with greater access to Bundanon’s prized Collection, and expand the visitor experience, every week of the year.”

2024 EXHIBITION SEASON 1

From 2 March – 16 June 2024 Bundanon will present three major projects across the galleries of the Art Museum focused on migration, the diasporic experience and storytelling. These include: a survey exhibition of new and past work by the leading Indonesian artist Jumaadi; an installation of new works by artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson, a descendent of indentured labourers sent from India to work on colonial sugar plantations in South Africa; and a presentation of Arthur Boyd and West Javanese artist and printmaker Indra Deigan’s handmade book of collagraphs and etchings.

In Gallery 1 & 2, Jumaadi’s survey exhibition, titled Jumaadi: ayang ayang, brings together key works from the past decade, including the artist’s celebrated works on cloth and buffalo hide, as well as new work created in residency at Bundanon. These works will be displayed in conversation with a selection of Javanese historical objects from the
artist’s personal collection connecting material traditions across time and place. Referring to the idea of the shadow, ‘ayang ayang’ suggests a physical presence and psychological condition: a silent self, following its owner through life’s journey; and the weight of history and loss which haunts the present. The exhibition will feature the live work, The Sea is Still a Mystery, encompassing Javanese folklore, music and shadow puppetry. Drawing on pre- and post-colonial trade routes around the Indonesian archipelago, the work speculates upon the Chinese and Arabic wrecks which lie submerged beneath the waves.

Gallery 3 will present a new sculptural and sound installation, alongside performance and works on paper, by Brisbane based artist Sancintya Mohini Simpson. Simpson is a descendent of indentured (bonded) labourers sent from India to work on colonial sugar plantations in South Africa. Her work navigates the complexities of migration, memory and trauma by addressing gaps and silences within the colonial archive to develop new narratives and rituals. Simpson’s practice connects wider histories surrounding descendants of indenture and their diaspora communities.

Vessel (4) is a new sculptural and multi-channel sound installation incorporating earth, ash and clay lotas (vessels). Developed in residency at Bundanon, this work forms part of a wider project by the artist and her sibling Isha Ram Das which seeks to create a restorative experience for the body. It is augmented by a new series of kolam designs in sugar cane ash on handmade paper. Traditionally made from rice flour, kolam designs are made at the entryways to homes by South Indian women. An often unseen practice of women’s labour, the flour is renewed daily, feeding the bugs and birds, functioning in part as a circular system of regenerative care.

In Gallery 4, an artist’s book of collagraphs and etchings by Arthur Boyd produced in collaboration with West Javanese artist and printmaker Indra Deigan in 1993, titled Sangkuriang. Furthering Boyd’s impetus to develop new techniques and mediums throughout his career, he explored printmaking in 1989 with Indra Deigan’s husband, printmaker Anthony Deigan, and went on to produce a considerable number of collagraph prints with Deigan. At Boyd’s suggestion a traditional Indonesian story was chosen as the subject matter of the book, continuing his lifetime interest in mythology and reflecting Deigan’s heritage. The book was designed, printed and bound by Deigan at the Graphic Investigation Workshop, Canberra School of Art, in an edition of ten, three of which are part of Bundanon’s Collection.

2024 EXHIBITION SEASON 2

From 6 July – 13 October 2024 Bundanon will present Early Light: Rethinking Australian landscapes, featuring Arthur Boyd’s 1984 commission for Arts Centre Melbourne, in conversation with works by environmentally-engaged Australian artists from the same period. At the centre of this exhibition sits Boyd’s suite of 14 large-scale paintings that document the Shoalhaven River for a 24-hour period, from dawn to midnight. Initially commissioned by renowned stage designer John Truscott for the theatre interiors and foyers of the State Theatre in Arts Centre Melbourne, these commissions were integral to Truscott’s conception of the theatres as a ‘secular cathedral to the arts’, a mission that continues to be shared by both Bundanon and Arts Centre Melbourne. This will be the first time that these panoramic works have left Arts Centre Melbourne, returning to their place of origin. Created whilst looking across the Shoalhaven River to the far bank and Pulpit Rock, Boyd captures the subtle shifts of colour and light at various times of the day, anchored by the central waterline of the river. The paintings represent the artist’s deep commitment to honouring and caring for the natural world, and specifically to preserving Bundanon as a place to be shared with all Australians.

This historic painting commission will inform an accompanying survey of works by other artists at that time, revealing Australia’s changing relationships to landscape and the natural environment. The mid-80s were a turning point for numerous artists, many of whom were engaging in environmental activism. This period also marks the beginning of a substantial national engagement with contemporary First Nations painting from around the continent, thereby challenging prevailing ideas of Australia’s identity and history. Bringing together loans from artists and institutions, this survey will present Boyd’s broader context as he engaged – in both his life and his work – with ideas of landscape, ownership and conservation.

2024 EXHIBITION SEASON 3

From 2 November 2024 – 9 February 2025 Bundanon will showcase a major new commission by leading First Nations artist Jonathan Jones in relationship with the Timbery Family Legacy and Bundanon. Jones is a member of the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi peoples of south-east Australia. Well known for his evocative site-specific installations and interventions into space, Jones works across a range of mediums, from printmaking and drawing to sculpture and film, utilising everyday materials in minimal repeated forms to explore and interrogate cultural and historical relationships and ideas from Indigenous perspectives and traditions. For Bundanon’s summer exhibition season of 2024–2025, Jones has been invited to create a new commission for Bundanon’s Art Museum, co-curating an accompanying exhibition that presents the cultural work and legacy of the Timbery family, an artistic lineage that stretches from La Perouse to Wreck Bay on the south coast of New South Wales. The breadth of the creative work produced by Esme and Laddie Timbery particularly – from shellwork and weaving to boomerangs and nawi – will be represented through works on loan, alongside new work made by living members of the family. Bundanon’s Art Museum – a leading site for cultural production and one that is embedded in the natural environment – allows an opportunity for Jones to create the new work in residency at Bundanon, responding directly to the environment of the south coast and to the legacy of this important family history, in collaboration with living practitioners from the Timbery family.

KEY DATES

● Season 3 2023: Miwatj Yolŋu – Sunrise People

On now until 11 February 2024

● Season 1 2024

2 March – 16 June 2024

● Season 2 2024: Early Light: Rethinking Australian landscapes

6 July – 13 October 2024

● Season 3 2024

2 November 2024 – 9 February 2025

Images available here

Downloadable PDF available here

MEDIA CONTACTS: To request interviews, further information or imagery please contact Articulate: Siân Davies sian@articulatepr.com.au 0402 728 462 or Claire Martin claire@articulatepr.com.au, 0414 437 588

ABOUT BUNDANON: Established in 1993, Bundanon was gifted to the Australian people by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, representing one of the most significant acts of philanthropy in the history of the arts in Australia. Bundanon is located on 1,000 hectares of bush and parkland overlooking the Shoalhaven River, on the South Coast of New South Wales, two and a half hours from Sydney.

Bundanon’s mission is to operate the property as a centre for creative arts and education, for scientific research and a place to explore landscape and engage with First Nations history and culture. Bundanon’s residency program for visual artists, writers, musicians, dancers, performers and scholars, and its learning programs, are an investment in Australia’s future. Bundanon is supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications’ Office for the Arts, Create NSW, the University of Wollongong, Landcare Australia, and a range of other foundation, bequest, and philanthropic contributions. The Collection features
some 1,448 works by Arthur Boyd together with Boyd’s contemporaries such as Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. In addition, Bundanon has an archive of artist books, scripts, compositions and working models related to artwork developed on the properties through the Artist in Residence program.

Bundanon’s Artist in Residence program is the largest program of its kind in Australia and spans a 30-year history. In 2023, over 150 multi-disciplinary artists and researchers will be in residence at Bundanon. Bundanon’s residency program is for visual and performing arts, literature, science, dance and music. It provides important career opportunities for artists and researchers to develop their work in an inspiring environment. Artists and researchers are hosted in purpose-built studios and rehearsal spaces on the organisation’s secluded Homestead Site.